Preparing for Radiation: Talking to my Family

Over the next few months, I'll be sharing regular posts about how I'm preparing for radiation in the fall. I'm hoping these can help someone else, as I struggled to find a conversational source like this that dealt with the subject. For more information on my brain tumor, check out these posts.
 

 Last weekend, my family came together to celebrate my husband's 50th birthday. The timing of this was pretty special as I'd just received confirmation from my medical team that my brain tumor had officially entered progression (at least 20% growth) just a couple of days before, which I explained in my post last week. One of the hardest parts of this process has been having to communicate, at each step, what's going on to my family, especially my children. Don't get me wrong, they've been amazing about it! But I hate seeing the burden of knowledge weighing heavily on them.

 Each of my kids have reacted differently to news of my tumor at different stages in this journey. Sometimes it seems like more than they were ready to handle and so they respond in a neutral, but supportive, way. Sometimes the news is fairly crushing and tears flow. Sometimes they take after their mom and reach out for information via online research and through their support networks. I had more than a few interesting conversations with them over the weekend and I was so touched by their love and engaged interest. 

 That doesn't make it any easier, though. Being their mom, my instinct is to protect them from harm, to soften the blow, to shield them from worry and concern. My kids have grown into amazing people. They are resilient. They are strong. But they will always be my babies. 

Here's the Thing: It breaks my heart that they have to walk through this, but I believe with every fiber of my being that it will be for their good in the long run. I long to set an example of trusting God and suffering strong (more to come on that), but I trust that regardless of how well I do that, God will show Himself to them through this season. 

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