Guilt
Guilt is a common and normal reaction to childhood leukemia. Parents feel that they have failed to protect their child, and blame themselves. It is especially difficult because the cause of their child’s cancer cannot be explained. There are questions: How could we have prevented this? What did we do wrong? How did we miss the signs? Why didn’t we bring her to the doctor sooner? Why didn’t we insist that the doctor do blood work? Did he inherit this from me? Why didn’t we live in a safer place? Maybe I shouldn’t have let him drink the well water. Was it because of the fumes from paint- ing the house? Why? Why? Why? It may be difficult to accept, but parents need to understand that it is very unlikely that they did anything to cause their child’s illness.