How do you, as a parent, deal with the anger? Son has sarcoma

Posted by bkayk @bkayk, Feb 19, 2024

My son was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma February of 2022 when he was 17. Had chemotherapy and surgery. Was doing great working out playing on college basketball team. Then December of 2022 he had a recurrence. Now doing proton radiation and oral chemotherapy.
I am just do angry! It’s not fair!

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I am so sorry and understand the unfairness. I am in my 70’s and one of my grandchildren was diagnosed with an uncommon (I was told) malignant brain tumor less than a year ago. Called an ependymoma. Highest grade malignant.
They had a surgery last spring to remove it. It’s a tumor that will stay in brain or spinal cord but can commonly recur..and it already did in less than a year. So second surgery. They have had radiation and that will be done again.

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@oncejimmymac

The Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The Sarcoma Doctor there told our son and his wife that there was only a small chance of a cure, due to the tumors being inoperable, but they agreed to try. Either I took my wife up to watch our granddaughter for a week while he and his wife went for 5 days of treatment, or I took him for his onc day treatments. His doctors and nurses were very kind and at least gave him hope. Now we wait to see if the cancer is still stable 3 months after chemo ended. The most important thing for your family is that it appears to have been caught early, unlike our son, who was already stage 4 when he was diagnosed.

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That sure sounds very stressful for all of you, I'm sorry. That is good that they are giving you all hope that is so important. Many prayers for your son and your family

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@cheekyinpa

That sounds awful to go through for all of you. My son's birthday is September 17th.
Yes we are in PA, in the Poconos, Stroudsburg area, we go to Lehigh Valley Dale and Francis Hughes Cancer Center, we see a Dr Lash who practices at Cedar Crest Hospital and Topper Cancer in Allentown area mostly but travels to our area every month.
He has explained that the gleevac gives good results and is usually well tolerated, but it does list some scary side effects as most medication does. We are doing our best to stay positive.
Are you going to like a Mayo clinic in Boston?

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The Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The Sarcoma Doctor there told our son and his wife that there was only a small chance of a cure, due to the tumors being inoperable, but they agreed to try. Either I took my wife up to watch our granddaughter for a week while he and his wife went for 5 days of treatment, or I took him for his onc day treatments. His doctors and nurses were very kind and at least gave him hope. Now we wait to see if the cancer is still stable 3 months after chemo ended. The most important thing for your family is that it appears to have been caught early, unlike our son, who was already stage 4 when he was diagnosed.

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@oncejimmymac

Our son just turned 29 in Sept. He underwent 14 cycles of intravenous chemo via a port. It was brutal, and there were lots of tears seeing him afterwards. Since the Gleevac is an oral medication and specifically targeted to his leukemia, hopefully side effects are minimal. From what I've read this morning, outcomes with this treatment are very favorable and your local cancer center can certainly manage his disease. I take it from your user name that you live in PA. We live near Harrisburg, so its 5 1/2 hours to where our son resides, and another 3 1/2 hours to Boston, but as you already know, you do whatever you have to for your child, no matter his age.

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That sounds awful to go through for all of you. My son's birthday is September 17th.
Yes we are in PA, in the Poconos, Stroudsburg area, we go to Lehigh Valley Dale and Francis Hughes Cancer Center, we see a Dr Lash who practices at Cedar Crest Hospital and Topper Cancer in Allentown area mostly but travels to our area every month.
He has explained that the gleevac gives good results and is usually well tolerated, but it does list some scary side effects as most medication does. We are doing our best to stay positive.
Are you going to like a Mayo clinic in Boston?

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@cheekyinpa

I'm so sorry for you as well, it is so hard to be a parent and not be able to help your child. My son was given Gleevac pill to start, first one today so I'm freaking out about side effects, how did you handle that worry as a parent with the chemo?
How old is your son?
We are going to a cancer center in our area

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Our son just turned 29 in Sept. He underwent 14 cycles of intravenous chemo via a port. It was brutal, and there were lots of tears seeing him afterwards. Since the Gleevac is an oral medication and specifically targeted to his leukemia, hopefully side effects are minimal. From what I've read this morning, outcomes with this treatment are very favorable and your local cancer center can certainly manage his disease. I take it from your user name that you live in PA. We live near Harrisburg, so its 5 1/2 hours to where our son resides, and another 3 1/2 hours to Boston, but as you already know, you do whatever you have to for your child, no matter his age.

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@oncejimmymac

I certainly understand everything you are feeling right now. On Feb 2nd, it will be a year since our son's diagnosis. Now that 9 months of chemo misery have passed, he has good days (each of which we celebrate as a minor victory) and bad days, which of course are bad days for us. I hope your son was diagnosed early. Please seek help at a major cancer center if it's possible

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I'm so sorry for you as well, it is so hard to be a parent and not be able to help your child. My son was given Gleevac pill to start, first one today so I'm freaking out about side effects, how did you handle that worry as a parent with the chemo?
How old is your son?
We are going to a cancer center in our area

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@cheekyinpa

My 29 year old son who is also autistic was just diagnosed with CML, our family has fallen apart, so much sadness, anger, and anxiety, life feels like it will never be any kind of happy or normal again

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I certainly understand everything you are feeling right now. On Feb 2nd, it will be a year since our son's diagnosis. Now that 9 months of chemo misery have passed, he has good days (each of which we celebrate as a minor victory) and bad days, which of course are bad days for us. I hope your son was diagnosed early. Please seek help at a major cancer center if it's possible

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My 29 year old son who is also autistic was just diagnosed with CML, our family has fallen apart, so much sadness, anger, and anxiety, life feels like it will never be any kind of happy or normal again

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@oncejimmymac

Thank you for taking the time to reply. His prognosis is not favorable, but he is at least feeling much better now that chemo has ended, and is not in pain.

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I’m so sorry to learn about your son’s prognosis but relieved to read he’s feeling better! Chemo can be brutal. especially if your son had 14 cycles. However, it can also be a life saver. I’ll be sending positive thoughts and a gentle hug for you and your son that his next scans are stable!

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@loribmt

Welcome to Connect, @oncejimmymac. By adding the @ sign in front of @bkayk is the perfect way to insure that they receive a notification of your post. Another way is to use the Blue Reply button at the bottom of the particular post where you’d like to respond.

Thank you for sharing yours and your son’s poignant journey through stage 4 Ewing sarcoma. As a parent, I can’t think of anything more heartbreaking than to see our children suffer and we’re helpless to ‘kiss and make it better’. May he continue to see positive signs of remission after his chemotherapy. Recovery may be slow, but now that the chemo is over, his body can heal.
Wishing only good news for you and your family as 2025 unfolds.

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Thank you for taking the time to reply. His prognosis is not favorable, but he is at least feeling much better now that chemo has ended, and is not in pain.

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