Recently my daughter was diagnosed with cancer. I have worked in the disability field for over a decade now, but have not encountered discussions between cancer and disability. That doesn't mean it's not there, just that it hasn't entered my viewfinder. But now it has. And while the medical treatment is the same, I'm finding a social aspect of cancer that may be different when dealing with people with intellectual disabilities. I'm hoping that this blog will generate a discussion that will help me to learn.
Some of my daughter's peers who have disabilities seem to handle the news harder than her peers without disabilities. I get it, hearing someone you know has cancer is not easy! But there seems to be a greater sense of fear, needing their caregivers' and supporters' reassurances. Is it because they don't have much experience with cancer so they don't know its not an automatic death sentence anymore?
Have you experienced this?
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