Effects of cancer treatments on children

Mickey Guisewite, Parent With A Purpose, explains the effects that treatment for cancer can have on a child and shares advice to help them through it
Pediatric Cancer Advice | Effects Of Cancer Treatments On Kids
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Effects of cancer treatments on children

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After a child goes through cancer treatment, there can be side effects. And I think that’s sometimes hard for a parent to accept, because you hope that once your child gets through the treatment, that’s it – you’re not going to have to worry about anything else. But there are things that can happen, because the child has been given extremely powerful drugs and if the child has undergone radiation treatment, that child can have balance issues, coordination issues. Academic performance can be different, there can be short-term memory loss, there can be… it’s called “chemo-brain”, sort of like a fuzzy brain, you have difficulty recalling things. You can have ADHD symptoms. But on the other side of that, we live in such an amazing time. 30 years ago many of these childhood cancers were incurable and just like there have been these amazing cures, these medical miracles that can cure cancer, there’s also all sorts of therapies that can be done to help a child after they’ve gone through cancer treatment. And most hospitals have after treatment programs set up for kids. And kids do get back to normal, and they do they do get back to their life and move on and it’s amazing to see.

Mickey Guisewite, Parent With A Purpose, explains the effects that treatment for cancer can have on a child and shares advice to help them through it

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Mickey Guisewite

Parent with a Purpose

Mickey Guisewite is a former advertising executive and syndicated newspaper columnist who started The Bottomless Toy Chest after her son successfully completed cancer treatment. The Bottomless Toy Chest is a nonprofit organization devoted to delivering toys, crafts and hands-on activities to hospitalized pediatric cancer patients. Mickey lives at home with her husband, son, daughter, two dogs, two cats and two turtles. When she’s not delivering toys to sick kids, she’s at home trying to find a tiny space on the couch among her two-legged and four-legged family members. 

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Transcription: 
After a child goes through cancer treatment, there can be side effects. And I think that’s sometimes hard for a parent to accept, because you hope that once your child gets through the treatment, that’s it – you’re not going to have to worry about anything else. But there are things that can happen, because the child has been given extremely powerful drugs and if the child has undergone radiation treatment, that child can have balance issues, coordination issues. Academic performance can be different, there can be short-term memory loss, there can be… it’s called “chemo-brain”, sort of like a fuzzy brain, you have difficulty recalling things. You can have ADHD symptoms. But on the other side of that, we live in such an amazing time. 30 years ago many of these childhood cancers were incurable and just like there have been these amazing cures, these medical miracles that can cure cancer, there’s also all sorts of therapies that can be done to help a child after they’ve gone through cancer treatment. And most hospitals have after treatment programs set up for kids. And kids do get back to normal, and they do they do get back to their life and move on and it’s amazing to see.