Biting My Tongue (Or Letting Others Learn By Themselves)

At one ' s first cancer diagnosis, you arewelcomed shoved into Cancerland, where no one wants to be. You learn about your cancer and probably a fair bit about cancer in general. Eventually you go on to learn more about cancer than you ever cared to know.You get to the point where you can talk about cancer and its treatment and have a general idea of cancer treatment hell. You also understand staging and what different stages mean. You never wanted to know all this but you do and you can ' t deny it.Then someone else you know is diagnosed with cancer. Do you tell them everything you know about cancer? Or, do you bite your tongue and let them learn at their own pace?I feel strongly about biting my tongue and keeping quiet on this. If someone asks questions, I ' ll help them with answers but I know I am not a doctor (just a professional patient) so I can ' t really give advice anyway, except to say ' step away from Dr. Google ' .Part of the trauma of a cancer diagnosis is the giant pile of decisions you need to make. You have to learn a lot of information so you can make informed decisions. I learned that I needed to learn in chunks. When I was facing surgery, what were the surgical options? Then when chemo came along, a new set of decisions. And so forth. I couldn ' t face any more information at one time.Also, every cancer is different and everyone ' s cancer is different even if the diagnosis is the same. I can ' t make assumptions about someone else ' s cancer. Nor can I for...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer diagnosis cancer support care giving learning Source Type: blogs