Hi Twana,
First I'm sorry about your daughter's diagnosis. You must feel your world is upside down. How are you and your daughter doing with the news? Bless your heart for wanting to make this as easy for her as possible....as a mother myself (and a lymphoma patient), I totally understand.
Does she have an aggressive or more indolent form? Will she be having R-CHOP, R-CVP or another form of chemo? All of this will help me answer your question more directly. But generally, let her guide how you can help. Most often the chemos are pretty well tolerated but there will be some not-so-good days each cycle. Let her know that you are available for whatever help she needs. It may be help with simple meals, laundry, house cleaning, driving her to or from treatments or appointments, getting any extra prescriptions or OTC meds she may need, or just being there to listen. Is she younger or more toward the middle years? That can make a difference in how we look at our disease and treatment. Is she an independent type?
I've been thru several chemo protocols, first being when I was 44. I've always been pretty independent and wanting to do as much for myself as I can but there were days when it was all I could do to drag myself thru the workday to get home and crash out. Bless my dear hubby for being there on those days. He'd go get whatever it was I wanted for dinner while I rested. Never complained about the dust bunnies piling up - I think he actually finds them kinda comforting. LOL Anything else I might need that he could do, all i had to do was say the word. Many times I'd be sound asleep by 7 in the evening. Or there would be nights that because of the steroids, I couldn't sleep and be up til all hours. Or have mood swings - laugh one minute, cry the next - and he'd just be here to comfort and support and understand it was the treatments and it would pass.
So I guess more than anything, she just needs to know that your there for her and understand that during the treatments it will be "all about her". Even after treatment ends, she may quite possibly run into some rough patches especially around check-up/scan times. Someone on here coined the phrase "scanxiety" and it surely is accurate even for us veterans at this.
Let her know about this board too and there's a forum "Living with..." that is for the various blood cancers. Lots of good folks on here to walk with her on the journey. Not that we'd be taking your place, Mom...but sometimes only someone who's been in the battle themselves can answer questions.
We're here for you, here for her....here for anyone touched by this beast.
Hugs and prayers for you both,
Sharon
