Understanding Grandma’s Battle with Multiple Myeloma: Helping Children Understand Cancer

Understanding Grandma’s Battle with Multiple Myeloma: Helping Children Understand Cancer

When someone in the family is diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the diagnosis doesn't belong only to the patient.

In one way or another, the entire family begins living with it.

There are doctor's appointments, blood tests, treatments, medications, fatigue, good days, bad days, canceled plans, and conversations that suddenly stop when a child walks into the room.

Children know something is happening.

The difficult part is helping them understand what.

That is the purpose behind Understanding Grandma's Battle with Multiple Myeloma by KT Roland—a children's book designed to take a complicated cancer and explain it through words young readers can understand.

When Grandma Has Cancer

Multiple myeloma isn't an easy disease to explain to an adult, much less a child.

It's a cancer of plasma cells found in the bone marrow. Those abnormal cells can interfere with the body's ability to produce healthy blood cells and can affect the bones, kidneys, immune system, and other parts of the body.

That's a lot for a child to absorb.

But children don't necessarily need to understand every medical detail.

They need to understand what is happening to someone they love.

Why is Grandma so tired?

Why does she go to the doctor so often?

Why does her body hurt?

What is chemotherapy?

Why does everyone worry when Grandma gets sick?

Why can Grandma do something one day but not the next?

And perhaps most importantly:

What does all of this mean for me and my grandma?

Letting a Child Do the Explaining

Understanding Grandma's Battle with Multiple Myeloma approaches those questions from a child's point of view.

In the book, young Adele helps explain her grandmother's illness in a simple and comprehensive way intended for elementary-age readers.

That perspective matters.

Adults tend to explain illness like adults. We use medical terminology, statistics, test results, treatment names, and complicated explanations.

Children see things differently.

They see Grandma.

They see someone they love who sometimes doesn't feel well.

They see changes in routines.

They notice worried faces.

They hear unfamiliar words.

And when no one explains those things, children may create explanations of their own.

Sometimes those explanations are much scarier than the truth.

Children Deserve Honest, Age-Appropriate Answers

Our instinct is often to protect children from frightening subjects.

Cancer certainly qualifies.

But protecting a child doesn't necessarily mean pretending cancer isn't happening. Children are remarkably observant. Even when adults don't tell them something is wrong, they can often sense it.

The better approach can be to give them information they are emotionally and developmentally ready to understand.

That doesn't mean telling a six-year-old everything an oncologist tells an adult patient.

It means giving children enough information to make their world feel less confusing.

Grandma has a type of cancer called multiple myeloma.

It affects something inside her bones called bone marrow.

The doctors give her medicine to help fight it.

Sometimes the cancer or the medicine makes her very tired.

You cannot catch multiple myeloma from Grandma.

And most importantly:

Grandma is still Grandma.

Those simple explanations can provide enormous reassurance.

Giving Children Permission to Ask Questions

One of the greatest benefits of reading about illness together is that a book can open conversations adults may not know how to begin.

A child may stop on a page and ask something unexpected.

“Does Grandma hurt?”

“Why does she need medicine?”

“Will her hair fall out?”

“Can I still hug her?”

“Did I make Grandma sick?”

“Is Grandma going to die?”

That last question may be the one adults fear most.

We don't always have easy answers.

We don't always know what the future holds.

But we can listen. We can answer honestly at a level appropriate for the child. And when we don't know an answer, it's okay to say so.

What matters is creating an environment where children know their questions aren't something they have to hide.

Teaching Empathy Along the Way

A book about multiple myeloma can teach something beyond cancer.

It can teach empathy.

Children begin to understand that someone may be tired for reasons they cannot see.

They learn that plans sometimes have to change.

They discover that helping doesn't always require doing something big.

Maybe helping Grandma means bringing her a blanket.

Maybe it means sitting beside her and coloring.

Maybe it's understanding that Grandma needs a nap.

Maybe it's washing their hands especially well before visiting.

Or maybe it's simply climbing onto the couch beside her and being together.

Those are lessons children can carry far beyond their experience with cancer.

A Resource for Families Facing Myeloma

Multiple myeloma affects thousands of families, yet finding resources created specifically for children can be difficult.

Most information about myeloma is written for adult patients and caregivers. It discusses treatment regimens, laboratory results, medications, clinical trials, side effects, and survival statistics.

All of that information is important.

But somewhere in those families may be a little boy or girl with an entirely different question:

“What's happening to my grandma?”

That child deserves an answer too.

Understanding Grandma's Battle with Multiple Myeloma was written to help provide one.

It doesn't take the place of conversations between children, parents, grandparents, and caregivers. Instead, it can help begin those conversations.

Read it together.

Let your child interrupt.

Let them ask questions.

Ask what they think.

Ask what worries them.

And don't worry about having every answer.

Sometimes helping a child understand cancer isn't about explaining everything.

It's about making sure they don't have to figure it out alone.

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About the Book

Understanding Grandma's Battle with Multiple Myeloma
By KT Roland

Understanding Grandma's Battle with Multiple Myeloma is a 50-page children's paperback featuring young Adele as she helps explain her grandmother's multiple myeloma in a way children can understand. Designed with elementary-age readers in mind, the book seeks to lessen fear and confusion while encouraging understanding and empathy for a loved one living with cancer.

Paperback | 50 pages
ISBN-13: 9798863334172

Because cancer may become part of a child's family story.

Understanding it shouldn't have to be frightening.