The Day Your Diagnosis Came

Where to start

• Give yourself the first few days; the family conversation can wait.
• Call the Macmillan nurse line or your GP for practical support.
• A serious diagnosis arrives in a household that has already been working at full capacity, and the first few days are for taking in the news yourself, with the other adult in the household if there is one, and for starting to gather practical support: Macmillan’s nurse line, the GP’s follow-up, a relative who can pick the children up.
• The GP rings, the scan results are back, and the diagnosis is one neither parent had prepared for.

The rest of the tip, with more to try and why it works, is in the library.

It goes with

• The Conversations Parents Avoid. For parents who need to tell their child something hard and don’t know how to start.
• When a Child Is Grieving. For parents whose child has lost someone, or something, that was there last week.

The first chapter you open here is free to read in full.

Free on this subject

• Difficult conversations. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.
• Family stress. What to do first, what helps, and who else can help. Free to read and to print.