Parent Support Group Speaker - Gabi Medrano

Our May Parent Support Group speaker was Gabi Medrano, whose daughter was diagnosed with B-cell ALL in 2014 at the age of 3. Her daughter is now an active, healthy 8-year-old who loves sports and ballet! Prior to her daughter’s illness, Gabi had never worried about what her family ate. She had a 3- year-old and a 4-year-old, so at the time, making a change wasn’t easy. But they did it, and making the switch to a healthier diet had a tremendous impact on Giselle’s ability to tolerate the chemotherapy and her overall health. Gabi shared a wealth of information with us.

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Parent Support Group Speaker - Ayelet Hirshfeld

This April, the Kids & Art Parent Support Group welcomed Dr. Ayelet Hirschfeld, PhD, to speak about stress assessment and management. Dr. Hirschfeld is an expert in trauma and secondary stress, and specializes in infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Dr. Hirschfeld gave us suggestions for how to handle PTSD and post-traumatic stress symptoms. She reminded us that as parents of cancer survivors, we are worrying about something that has already happened. Reminding ourselves of this fact will help us gain perspective, and may ease symptoms.

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