October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and many patients will say one of the most difficult parts of the journey is explaining cancer to a child.
It's a path Carolyn Brown recently had to walk down, but she had help from a one-of-a-kind resource.
In 2016, Brown was diagnosed with breast cancer and she said her first thoughts were for her son Jack.
"He was five and I just wanted to be there for all these things," she said. She had stage 3 triple negative breast cancer, a very serious and aggresive form of the disease.
Doctors told her it'd be a tough battle.
"As a mom, that was the hardest part for me. 'How this is going to hurt my little guy?'" she said. "He used to always get nervous so we would always pinky promise each other that I would come back, I would always come back and that he didn't need to worry. I thought, 'I can't tell him that now.'"
Luckily, Brown had help explaining to her son what was about to happen.
Cinda McDonald is child life specialist, part of a unique team at Baylor Dallas.
"We are the only child life team in the U.S. partnered with a major healthcare facility that works exclusively with children of sick adults," McDonald said.
The team works to develop coping strategies and help children prepare for hospital visits, treatments and changes in mom or dad's appearance.
"If we meet with the families early on, it may be right after the diagnosis and help them understand how important it is to talk to their kids and include them in an open, honest manner and in an age appropriate manner, then we can help guide them and help them feel more included," McDonald said. "Then they feel less stress through the process."
During their sessions, McDonald used a doll to explain to Jack what was happening to his mother.
She encouraged Brown to let Jack help shave her head before she lost her hair to chemotherapy.
"Without Cinda, I think we would have really messed it up," laughs Brown, who said helping her son deal with cancer helped her focus on her own battle.
Brown is cancer-free and grateful to be just mom again.
McDonald said many children think they caused their parents illness or that they can catch it.
Her teams works with kids during the duration of their parents' treatment and sends strategies home with families.
