Personal Relationships
Exactly how cancer affects healthy siblings depends on their personality and style of coping with problems, their relationship to the ill child, and their own emotional and tangible burdens.
Cancer Is a Family Affair
Caring for the Siblings of a Child with Cancer
by O.J. Sahler, MD
A diagnosis of childhood cancer is the beginning of major changes in how a family operates. Fear and anxiety about the child’s type of cancer and whether effective treatments are available, trips to the cancer center for treatment, and recurrent periods when the child just doesn’t feel well not only take the parents’ time but can also sap their energy and emotional reserves. In addition, parents have to make decisions about how to maintain health insurance and provide for their family’s living expenses.
Is There Sex for Women after Cancer?
by Anne Katz, RN, PhD, and Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP
One of the more common side effects of cancer and its treatments is sexual dysfunction, which includes alterations in body image, changes in normal arousal patterns, and diminished ability to have and enjoy intercourse. All of these issues can take an emotional toll on both the woman with cancer and her partner, and too often, they aren’t addressed.
In This Together
by by Suzanne B. Phillips, PSYD, ABPP, CGP, FAGPA
A traumatic event is one that is life threatening, unimaginable, and unexpected. One that can assault your body, your spirit, and your life as you know it. For a couple, a cancer diagnosis is a traumatic event for both partners. But when you each recognize your strength as a couple, you have a physical and psychological advantage in this journey.
Browse all Personal Relationship topics
