Question about long term effects

cheryl_maynard

Hi, my name is Cheryl. My son nicholas was diagnosed with T-cell NHL stage 4 when he was 4 yrs old. He is fixng to be 8 next month and is in remission. Nicholas under went chemo and cranial radiation. They had dicussed with me that there might be some problems with learning and attention span as a long term effect of the radiation and/or chemo. He is in the second grade but struggling. He has problems in math and reading. And also has a serious problem focusing and keeping his attention on the matter at hand. I am wondering if anyone has any info on this or knows where I can read up on the long term effects, and what I can do about it. Thank you in advance for any advice.

tom_s

"Childhood Cancer Survivors: A practical guide to you future" by Keene, Hobbie and Ruccione (ISBN 1-56592-460-6), publisher: O'Reilly, Is a very good book on this. I can recommend it.
Tom

dickl

Cheryl,
The book tom s suggested is excellent, get it. My son had AML (leukemia) at 7 and a bone marrow transplant at 8. He did not have any radiation but did have chemo drugs ( ara-c) injected into his spinal fluid. We were told of potential neurological effects. He is now 14 and cured of his cancer but does deal with many late term effects. He has short term memory loss,atttention problems, higher function learning difficulties, behavorial problems. School is very hard for him. Before treatment it was a breeze. He has an IEP and gets a lot of tutoring after school This has helped and he is learning and hopefully will be a functional part of society. You must be your child's strongest advocate at school. The schools don't understand problems this complex. It is the law in our state to help your child in the least restrictive atmosphere. We live in Ohio where there are advocates for children with learning disabilities. They can be great sources of help. Most medical people are not too helpful when treatment is over.
Feel free to respond if I can help.

dickl

spot

dickl said:

Cheryl,
The book tom s suggested is excellent, get it. My son had AML (leukemia) at 7 and a bone marrow transplant at 8. He did not have any radiation but did have chemo drugs ( ara-c) injected into his spinal fluid. We were told of potential neurological effects. He is now 14 and cured of his cancer but does deal with many late term effects. He has short term memory loss,atttention problems, higher function learning difficulties, behavorial problems. School is very hard for him. Before treatment it was a breeze. He has an IEP and gets a lot of tutoring after school This has helped and he is learning and hopefully will be a functional part of society. You must be your child's strongest advocate at school. The schools don't understand problems this complex. It is the law in our state to help your child in the least restrictive atmosphere. We live in Ohio where there are advocates for children with learning disabilities. They can be great sources of help. Most medical people are not too helpful when treatment is over.
Feel free to respond if I can help.

dickl

Dear Cheryl my son is 5 and he just finished chemo treatment for his aml leukemia. Can you tell me more about the side effects you exsperienced, at what point did you notice an effect? Where can I get information on how to recognize these effects and how to deal with them? Please e-mail me at spotsmithm6@cs.com thank-you

dickl

spot said:

Dear Cheryl my son is 5 and he just finished chemo treatment for his aml leukemia. Can you tell me more about the side effects you exsperienced, at what point did you notice an effect? Where can I get information on how to recognize these effects and how to deal with them? Please e-mail me at spotsmithm6@cs.com thank-you

read the reply in this original thread by tom_s , the book he mentions is excellent.

dickl