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- hospitalization and even if the child is seen as an outpatient there are frequent visits that may include
- uncomfortable injections. It may take a while before the family pattern gets back to normal. Parents have to be
- patient. It may take several months before their child's behavior returns to what it was before the illness.
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- • How about school?
- For a child, school is the normal working environment. Just as an adult wishes to return to work and continue
- his or her normal activities, so too the child wishes to get back to the normal routine. Multidisciplinary
- programs will offer the family support to work with the school system so that the child with cancer can
- re-enter his or her normal environment. School administrators, teachers and others are becoming more familiar
- with the fact that children in their classrooms may be undergoing cancer therapy. For the most part, school
- personnel are understanding. They can develop flexible schedules that permit the child to take advantage of the
- maximum number of educational opportunities while continuing with treatment programs.
-
- • How can we help relieve the nausea, vomiting and other side effects of chemotherapy?
- Unfortunately, many cancer chemotherapy drugs cause nausea, vomiting, mouth sores, constipation, skin
- rashes, sore eyes and generally a lower resistance to infection. Physicians can offer other medications that will
- help the child tolerate some of these side effects. The medications themselves will often cause tiredness.
- Prompt attention should be given to the constipation caused by vincristine .
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