← Return to Talking about hair loss with children

Discussion

Talking about hair loss with children

Breast Cancer | Last Active: May 23, 2016 | Replies (7)

Comment receiving replies
@colleenyoung

Welcome to Connect @pirmir. What a great question you ask.
I'm tagging my colleague Sheryl M. Ness @smness on this message. Sheryl is a patient educator at the Cancer Education Center, Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Her team always has great resources to share.

You're wise to start talking with your grandchildren about this now. Hair loss is often a change that help lead to meaningful conversations, especially with young children. One friend told me that beyond talking about it, she also involved her young children in the choices that they could take charge of, like asking them which hat or scarf she should wear to pick them up from school.

I'd also like to invite @lacey @martid @irvkay312 @hopeful33250 to this discussion.

Pirmir, when do you start chemo?

Jump to this post


Replies to "Welcome to Connect @pirmir. What a great question you ask. I'm tagging my colleague Sheryl M...."

Thank you for your reply. I don't have an exact date for chemo but it will be within the next month. I do not know what drugs or how many rounds yet either. I did a pretty good job of involving my children during my last treatment but they were a little older than my grandkids. Both my daughters are RNs so we have great experience for speaking honestly and within the children's abilities to understand but somehow it seems different for me that it is my grandchildren not my own children. Not sure why that is. Maybe because we are not together everyday I know they will notice the changes in a more drastic way. I often use books as a 'doorway' to talk about things with them and this seemed like a less scary way to start the dialogue. I appreciate any resources that are available. I look forward to using this support through my treatment and health recovery process.

Hi,<br><br>I didn't think much about hair loss when I had my chemo, even though I am<br>male. We learned and saw not only the hair loss that hurts most woemen ,<br>but. YES, i lost my hair, but learned a lot more and am facing Palliative<br>care 6 and a half years later. The chemo I had they warned me that "I<br>might face heart or kidney problems later in my life." At the present<br>time, due to the chemo, I have 3rd. stage Chronic Kidney Disease."<br><br>It doesn't sound like much, since it's 2 stages away from Dialysis---BUT<br>what is happening is that as quickly as I ingest food or protein, the<br>protein is filtered out of my blood and body, so that it can't do its job<br>in maintaining my body system and health."<br><br><br>Kay<br>