Did you tell your parent(s) about your diagnosis?

The question of managing information is a good one. There are a couple issues--who needs to know what, and how the experience of sharing goes. I ended up creating an email list about our health and telling people they could request those emails if they wanted to know, but if others wanted to know, they should not forward the emails, but rather let them know they could request them. Some of course didn't request the emails but still felt entitled to ask me specific questions. I tried to deal with them charitably and patiently.
My family all got the emails, but my immediate family (only children for me) got the information first. My mother-in-law with dementia was always shocked when she overheard something, but she never remembered the previous time. We tried to avoid disturbing her with this and many other things because anxiety is a major symptom for her. We don't tell her she's coming to supper until we show up, for instance.
It makes sense to me that we would think about the impact on an elderly parent as best we understand it and take that into account in how we communicate.

No , I did not. I was 46 when I had my prostate out. My parents were in their 70's

My decision to keep info from my mom is part of a family tradition. About 20 years ago, my mom was talking to my sister on the phone, and she casually mentioned that she had macular degeneration. My sister didn't panic; she simply related to my mom that blindness often doesn't result until 10 years after initial diagnosis.

So, my sister asked her when she got that diagnosis. My mom replied, "Oh, about 10 years ago."

My parents had both passed before I was diagnosed, but I think I would have told them if they were still alive. Both of them came of age during the Great Depression, and Dad served in the Army in Europe during WWII - it took a lot to shake either one of them up. But everyone's situation is different.

My wife and I have different approaches on this. She tends to overshare (IMHO), and I tend to keep things a bit quieter. I've told my siblings, our son, and two close friends about my diagnosis and treatment. Medically important for the sibs and our son to know. The friends, just because they are guys I talk about everything with.

I'm retired, so work colleagues were not an issue - but I think I would have shared, I wouldn't have gotten into the weeds with them, but I'd rather have them understand why I'm jumping up and leaving a meeting to go to the men's room than to speculate.

I wouldn't want that as a parent. I'm in it with my kids for the good and the bad.

Thanks for sharing both of those. I'm not the best liar on things like this and having an obsessive mother doesn't help. I'm taking this "secret" to the grave.

My husband never told his parents about any hardships we experienced here , financial or health related and they lived and went from this world in complete bliss. I also avoid telling my mom things that wold upset her but again, they all lived so far away, it would be perhaps difficult to hide things from them if they lived in the same city, almost impossible.

That is great to hear that you had no problem at work . What a relief !
My husband made a mistake of telling about his heart event 20 year ago to his boss and coworkers - he got "package" during the first reorganization even thou he had amazing performance evaluations and was in high position. His friend who was diagnosed with cancer had the same thing happen in different company. Lessons hard learned 🙁 I always laugh at the inscription on Statue of Liberty XP

As far as work goes, they all seemed to forget that I have stage 4 cancer after a while. I didn't look sick, and honestly, they had other things on their mind. It's not really there in interactions with my family either, except if I tell them a test result or make a joke about it. They see me up and about and living a normal life, and that's good enough for them.

Thank you for that. 🙂 see my previous comment. I'm never going to tell her!