Parents Speak Up

Chemotherapy - Life Saving, Life Changing

Being told a child has cancer creates an immediate crisis in a family. After the initial shockwave of the diagnosis hit like a brick wall, what soon follows is a tidal wave of emotions. Family members encounter stress, depression and severe anxiety. After all, cancer is a complex disease. It forces life challenging event in a family. In a split second, family members find themselves plunged into a maze without a map. Life will never be the same again.

The effects that cancer has on family members and how each individual cope vary over the course of treatment. There is no right or wrong way to feel. Emotions fluctuate from moment to moment. At times the intense emotion is unspeakable.

Chemotherapy is one of the common treatments for treating cancer. When parents first learned about chemotherapy, probably the word itself invites fear and confusion. Most parents will dutifully sign on for the treatment based upon what they believe to be in the best interest of their child. But deep down how we all wished the diagnosis was simply an error, a big mistake made by the lab.

Regardless how we see chemotherapy, the treatment is toxic and painful. It always affects people in different ways. Despite science and medicine have made tremendous progress, chemotherapy is not without unpleasant physical side effects and risks. Certain side effects may have longer term consequences, others just fade quickly. Side effects may reduce our children’s quality of life significantly. To some, the side effects are worse than the cancer itself. Often, strong cancer therapy suppress the immune system, increases the risk of infection and life-threatening complications.

If the good news about chemotherapy is about survival, then the bad news is the negative impact on the child’s quality of life. Like most parents, I agreed with the standard chemotherapy treatment without fully understanding the risks after I learned about my son’s diagnosis.

As time went by, I realized basic understanding on chemotherapy is a necessary preliminary to understanding the side effects. Families are likely to encounter problems outside the hospital setting when receiving outpatient chemotherapy. Learning to manage side effects meaning taking control of the patient’s health. This too can be countered, once it is acknowledged and understood. It could have a major impact on survivorship.

To survive cancer and treatments, it takes more than chemotherapy. To improve treatment tolerance, attitude, proper nutrition and life style choices are essential. Parents need to become smart and well inform simply because you need to be. Improved dietary habits and altered lifestyle may compliment cancer therapy, ultimately the healing process. To overcome obstacles and get it done is a labor of love, one needs help and support from all.

I believe today, the best health care service treats the person as whole, focusing on the emotional, psychological, spiritual, and social aspects of the individual, and not just the physical disease alone. Chemotherapy is not something to be undertaken lightly. For children who been through the whole treatment regimen and come out the other side, it often makes me think the process turn out to be worthwhile after all.

- Stacey Chiew

"A big thank you to CCF for always being there for us, providing us the emotional and moral support when we needed. We hope that all the children with cancer will also get well soon, just like my girl Keller who is healthy now. Keller was diagnosed at 6 years old with Leukaemia, and she just completed her last chemotherapy session in Sept 2006. I just want to tell all the mums out there not to give up hope. With the advanced medical care that is available now, the survivor rate is also much higher. So never lose hope!"

- Mrs Chai, mummy of 11 year-old Keller

"The first thing that my daughter, Nur Shahirah say each time she goes to KKH for chemotherapy is "Can I go to CCF?". I am very happy to hear that. The CCF room is full of games and laughters, with Ai Ling and the volunteers who make my daughter more cheerful and forget her pain. Other than that, the CCF helps my husband and I, emotionally and financially, to cope with her illness and lighten our burden. The KKH-FSC introduced us to Fion who listens and explains every detail that we need to know. We are very happy to have her as our CCF-SW (Social Worker). Thank you CCF"

- Suria, parent of Nur Shahirah