Frances Malinis chose openness with her three children after a breast cancer diagnosis, shifting from secrecy she experienced as a child and bringing her family into treatment updates and decisions as her disease progressed to metastatic breast cancer.
Malinis rejected the silence she grew up with and told each child the truth about her diagnosis in age-appropriate ways.
She kept family routines and integrated treatment into daily life so cancer did not eclipse milestones or parenting roles.
Her youngest child, who has developmental disabilities, responded to changes by focusing on relationship and routine rather than medical details, showing children perceive serious illness differently.
Malinis underwent chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy, and immunotherapy. After learning she carried a BRCA2 mutation, she also had a risk-reducing hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy. She organized treatments around family life, for example traveling to a child's volleyball tournament the day before a bilateral mastectomy. Her goal was to "fit cancer around life" instead of letting it become the only thing the family lived around.
The family's shift toward shared updates and conversations meant the children were accustomed to receiving information after appointments, asking follow-up questions, and walking through uncertainty alongside their mother. That ongoing involvement contrasts sharply with Malinis's own childhood experience of silence and surprise.
Malinis's family example shows one way to balance honesty about a serious diagnosis with preserving family life and parental bonds as treatment continues and the disease evolves.
The author and her mother at their home in 1983. When he was 5, my son went through a phase where he would climb up onto the couch where I was sitting, plop himself on my lap and punch my breasts, squish them in his hands, then try to pinch my nipples. I’d push his arms down and pull away, saying, “Ouch! That hurts, bu
Age-appropriate explanations can help children understand cancer, ask questions, and cope with frightening changes in someone they love. The post Opinion: Kids Deserve Explanations About Cancer They Can Understand appeared first on The Good Men Project .
I became my mom's caregiver after her cancer diagnosis and ignored my own worsening health. Eventually, I learned I needed her support, too.
"I remember thinking that he went to the doctor more than seemed usual, but when I asked if there was a reason why, he quickly changed the subject."
Two friends in Austin decide, on the same January morning, to get healthy. They download the same app, buy the same running shoes, follow the same meal plan they found online. By April, one has lost fifteen pounds, sleeps better, and feels sharper at work. The other has followed the plan just as faithfully and […] The
Think back to the last time you or someone close to you needed real medical care. Odds are a doctor set the plan and a nurse managed the ward. But a lot of the hands-on work came from someone else entirely. Think of the person who The post Allied Health, Explained: The Fast-Growing Field Shaping Modern Wellness appeare
Loading more related stories...
Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.