My daughter, MaKayla, was diagnosed with Histiocytosis, July 5, 2002. She was 14 months old. She had surgery to remove a tumor from the bone in her right eye and 6 months of chemo for a tumor on the inside of her skull. It was right in front of her forehead. She didn't start walking until after we started chemo. I was told that possibly the tumor was putting pressure on the front of her brain, which could cause problems with her mobility. MaKayla doesn't have any tumors at this time, but still has medical problems, Allergies, Sinusititis, Ear Infections. The Onocologist referred to MaKayla as a chemo brat on her second chemo visit. That was over 2 years ago. MaKayla has no fear and will do anything. She is very active, but I don't feel she has ADHD. She will watch television and do activies for a reasonable amount of time (for a child her age). She talks back, hits, screams, is into everything. Fixing a meal in the evening is really hard because she puts shampoo in her hair, swallows change, and puts candy up her nose, this was while I was putting BBQ chicken in the oven. When you try to talk to her she yells "No!". The Sunday school teacher tried to tell her Jesus want her to be good. She replied, "No, he don't!" Before she started head start he father and I thought things had improved. She was behaving reasonably well. After school started I can't get her to sit on time outs. When I try to hold her she kicks, hits, and pinches. She doesn't act this way at school. Except for throwing french fries. I would have agreed, we still have a chemo brat, if after months of timeouts, spankings, and toy removals, she hadn't changed her behavior. I called a friend of mine from church, her daughter has ADHD and Bipolar. She suggested that I take MaKayla to a therapist. I guess I want to have other opinions before I put MaKayla through any unneccessary doctor visits. She goes to the Doctor or Dentist about 3 times a month. The steriods and chemo damaged some of her teeth. We are trying to save them until she's a little older, to have them extracted. Any advice would be appreciated.
I'm sorry to hear your daughter has had cancer. It must have been really tough for you and your family. I think describing a two year old or even a four year old as a chemo brat is really unfair. My son is nearly four and he never sits still and thankfully he has never had a serious illness.
We are in England and Andrew is under a child development centre because of developmental problems. The child development centre is lovely because you can see several health proffessionals at once, reducing the number of appointments. I think your little girl would benefit from seeing a community paediatrian for a development review where they dont focus on the fact that she has had cancer.
Andrew walks on tiptoes and has delayed speech. We had some behavioural issues and our paediatrian arranged a hearing test and speech assessment. It turned out that andrew had glue ear which caused him to be frustrated and led to bad behaviour.
Maybe your little girl has a medical problem like glue ear which has nothing to do with the cancer.
Sorry to hear about your daughter.
The way i see it is that she has had a rather difficult childhood- She is still not fully well though that may not justify her behaviour in your eyes yet her experience of childhood has been one of greater pain as compared to that of other children. Maybe if you tried a completely different approach of encouraging the good things that she does, praising her for when ever she behaves well, treating her to good times and happy experiences & things that she likes whenever she behaves relatively better and always demonstrating your love for her irrespective of the way she is or the difficulties that she may be causing.
