A Parent's Guide to Childhood Cancer

A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Cancer – with Pediatric Oncologist Dr. Wendy Allen-Rhoades

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If I could pinpoint one single worry that many parents have when it comes to the health of their kids, I’d say it would be that their child would someday be diagnosed with cancer.

More often than not, our fears are unfounded. Our kids get better. That google search was wrong.

But for almost 16,000 kids a year here in the United States, a new diagnosis of childhood cancer is a reality. If you do the math, that’s about 43 kids a day who are diagnosed with some form of cancer. And while survival rates for childhood cancer are now around 90%, it’s still an experience that no family wants to go through.

So with this episode, I wanted to bring on someone whom I really respect and look up to to help walk us through childhood cancer — and to give you an episode that you’ll find useful whether your child has recently been diagnosed or you’re simply looking to learn more and ease your worries.

My guest today is pediatric oncologist Dr. Wendy Allen-Rhoades. for a long time—-we went to med school together, and she was a year under me in residency. And when you’re working 80 hour weeks and 30 hour shifts and it all hits the fan at 2 in the morning with no one else around, you quickly figure out which of your colleagues you want by your side. As a resident, Wendy was that person…and now as a pediatric hematologist & oncologist at Texas Children’s Hospital, hundreds of families get to have her by their side as they go through the challenging journey of childhood cancer.

In this episode, Dr. Allen-Rhoades guides us through all the nuts and bolts of cancer in kids.

Listen by clicking here for iTunes or play in the player below.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What cancer is & how it affects kids differently from adults
Exactly what chemotherapy and radiation are and how they work
Common signs of cancer in children
What can happen years after a child is treated for cancer
What you can do to help a child who is undergoing treatment
How parents can take care of themselves, too, while their child is being treated for cancer
What you can do to help improve the lives of children with cancer
And much, much more!

Dr. Wendy Allen-Rhoades takes us step-by-step through the experience of a child with cancer, from diagnosis, through treatment, and — hopefully — to remission and beyond.

Be sure to SHARE this page & this episode with any family you know who’d benefit from this Parent’s Guide to Childhood Cancer.

Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and let me know what you think about my conversation with Dr. Wendy Allen-Rhoades.

Important Resources

Contact Dr. Wendy Allen-Rhoades here, and check out her research here
Online Support Group for parents of children with cancer: www.momcology.org
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
Be the Match – register to become a bone marrow donor
Charity Watch – an online resource to help you make informed decisions about charities

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