Mary Sage: Challenges

I guess the biggest challenges that I faced were just trying to keep my regular routine going and fit in the treatments and the side effects, usually the day that I had the chemotherapy treatment I would be pretty wiped out the rest of the day, would kind of come home and take a nap and just rest and kind of recoup the rest of the day, and then from that time on I could pretty much carry on with regular activities. Well, my son Tom was 9 at the time, he was the youngest, and he was in 4th grade, and my son Dan was in high school, he was 14, and he was a Sophomore in high school, when I told them that I might lose all my hair I remember Dan said “that’s alright Mom cause your hair kind of looks like a wig anyway”, so I thought that was great, kids are so adaptive and so easy going, and I was concerned my son Tom would be upset if he saw me without any hair, that maybe he would be frightened and one day he waked in and saw me without my wig on and he said “Oh Mom, that’s so cool, you look just like the lady on Star Trek”. So, kids are very adaptive, but you have to be honest with them, and you have to level with them and let them know how serious or what the situation is, and then they can adapt.