Childhood Cancer Diagnosis Affects Everyone
- One mother in the United Kingdom wants other parents to know her daughter's story after what doctors dismissed as constipation turned out to be a fast-growing tumor in the 2-year-old’s stomach.
- Stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, begins when cells in the stomach start to grow out of control.
- Cancers in children can be difficult to recognize right away because the early symptoms are often similar to (or dismissed as) those caused by more common illnesses or injuries. The American Cancer Society offers a list of symptoms that should not be ignored in children.
"I want other parents to know that this can happen it's such a fast-growing cancer. It's terrifying," Sophie Potter says of her daughter Florence's cancer diagnosis.
Read MoreFor the last four weeks, the mother and daughter have been at the hospital, where the 2-year-old is getting chemotherapy treatments and undergoing additional tests to learn more about the tumor. Florence's doctors still don't know for certain what the tumor is attached to or where it's growing from, so there’s little information available about her prognosis.
Florence is about to start her second round of chemo, which will continue for at least eight months, Potter says.
"Hopefully by then they will be able to remove it (the tumor) with surgery or lasers," Potter says.
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Struggling to Cope
Potter says bluntly that she struggled to cope when she was first told of her daughter's diagnosis.
"When they told me I just broke down crying," Potter says. "I couldn't take it in so I asked the consultant to talk to my mom about it I couldn't talk."
Potter isn't the only one struggling with the situation; Florence is "petrified" as well, Potter says.
"She's been hiding under her covers in the bed in hospital, not wanting to know anyone," Potter says. "It's changed our lives completely … We've been isolated in a ward for the past four weeks. We got to go home for just one night during that time."
For a little girl, this lifestyle is difficult as she can't fully understand why she's in the situation that she's in. Potter says Florence loved to swim and have baths but she'll be unable to do those things during her chemo treatments because she has a Hickman line a soft, small, long, hollow tube that's placed into a vein in the chest and ends in a larger vein just above the heart going into her chest for the drugs.
When Parents Should Be Concerned
As a parent, it's only natural to worry about your child. Most people don't want to assume the worst about the health of their loved ones, or even their own health, but there are signs and symptoms parents should be on the lookout for that could be indications of childhood cancer.
The American Cancer Society reports that many childhood cancers are found early, either by a doctor or their parents and/or relatives. In Florence's case, her mother was the one who noticed the symptoms first. But cancers in children can be hard to recognize right away because the early symptoms are often similar to (or dismissed as) those caused by more common illnesses or injuries, according to the ACS. (In Florence's situation, her symptoms were dismissed for constipation, which is much more common.)
While cancer in children is rare in both the United States and the U.K. (in the U.K., 1 in every 450 children under 15 years old will develop cancer), it's a good idea to have your child evaluated by a doctor if they're experiencing symptoms that don't go away, such as:
- Unusual lump or swelling (a symptom Florence had)
- Unexplained paleness and loss of energy
- Easy bruising or bleeding
- Ongoing pain in one area of the body
- Limping
- Unexplained fever or illness that doesn't go away
- Frequent headaches, often with vomiting as well
- Sudden eye or vision changes
- Sudden unexplained weight loss
The majority of the time, most of the symptoms listed above are more likely to be caused by something other than cancer, such as an injury or infection. But if your child has any of these symptoms, see a doctor so the cause can be found, according to the ACS.
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