DIAGNOSIS: SUMMER
The humidity and oppressive heat of summertime can feel similar to the confusion and overwhelm of a cancer diagnosis. As you take your first few unwilling steps on this cancer journey with your sibling, I hope one or two of the resources linked below is helpful to you. If you’re looking for written reflections on this topic, you can find that here.
You will endlessly scroll through disturbing possibilities, none of which will exactly fit your situation. In my professional nursing opinion as well as my experience as a sibling, I would recommend you stick to the following reputable sources:
Avoid Dr. Google.
Mayo Clinic
My go-to for any diagnosis my family or I receive, Mayo Clinic has easy-to-understand explanations of diseases and their treatments. They are the place many hospitals send tough cases, and conduct a lot of cutting edge research.
Cleveland Clinic
A cancer clinic that is involved in many clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. They have a robust patient education section and information on enrolling in trials if that is something on the table for your sibling.
National Cancer Institute
The government-funded cancer research center. A great place for learning about specific cancers and understanding terminology.
One of the tough truths of any crisis is that most people reach out to help only when they first hear of the problem. Unfortunately, this is precisely when you are most overwhelmed and don’t know what you need yet. Get comfortable with saying, “I’m not sure how you can help right now, but I’ll be in touch later.” In the meantime, here are some resources to work through your first emotions:
Build a “stand-by support” list.
Spotify Playlist
Here are a few songs that helped me process some of my earliest emotions after my sister’s diagnosis. As a disclaimer I am a person of faith, so most of these songs are from that perspective.
The Ring Theory
This article by a psychologist and her husband explains how we can send comfort IN toward the person at the center of the crisis, and dump or vent OUT away from that person. You’re going to want to think of one or two people whom you can simply dump OUT on during this difficult time, since you’ll be doing a lot of comforting IN. Maybe share this article with them and ask them to fill that role.