How Do You Tell Your Child He Has Cancer

A question I get asked a lot is if Liam knows what he went through.

It was his little body that went through the treatment and fought with such strength, but it's Brian and I that livesd the nightmare. Liam's scar is so faint he doesn't even know it's there.

Recently Brian asked when I thought we should have that conversation with Liam, when will he be vale to understand? As the cliche says; we weren't given an instruction manual for this.

With an appointment happening last week I started sharing some things with Liam. Currently he has an abdominal ultrasound every 4 months, we had been telling him we were going to get pictures taken of his belly but never said why before. Last week I decided to ask him if he knew why he has to get pictures taken of his belly. If course he didn't. Since he had recently had a stomach bug he has a recent experience with being sick. I explained to Liam when he was Aubrey's age he had something growing in his belly and it was making him really sick. He doctors had to take it out and why he has a scar on his belly. We want to make sure nothing starts growing again so we take pictures of his belly to keep him healthy.

I know he can understand more than that, but cancer is such an abstract concept.  What we tell Liam will continue to change each time until he fully understands.  We just want him to know about his history before cancer is associated negatively in his mind. 

Liam, You are a survivor.  You are my hero!