i need someone to talk to who understands what i'm going through. my step mom has been diagnosed with cancer about three years agao she is now on a hospital bed in the main floor and i spend my summer helping do everything! i can't take this it's too hard. i just need someone to talk to. i shouldn't be dealing with this, i'm only fifteen! please contact me at [removed]@hotmail.com

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[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 08-12-2002).]

Hi ConfusedAndAngry ~~ I really am sorry that you have to handle such big responsibilities at a young age. I know it must be hard to deal with her cancer and everything else on top of it.

Tell me more about the situation .. do you get along with your step mom, what all do you have to do around the house? Have you tried talking to your dad about how you feel? What about your real mom?

Hang in there sweetie, I know you must just want a normal teen-age life, but sometimes we just have to do the best we can with what we are given.

Much http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/heart.gif

MY mom and my dad divorced when i was about six or seven and my dad married my step mom and they live in a separate house from my mom and my stepdad and my sisters. but one of my sisters and i are up with my dad helping my stepmom out while she can't walk or do stuff so she doesn't get sent to a hospital. she has the left side of her body paralyzed from a fall down the steps and she constantly telling me to be careful and warning me that she doesn't want to fall and i would never drop her, i love her, but it's hard day in and out i sit here watching her as she sleeps, helping her go potty and feeding her and moving her on her side etc... if i weren't here she'd have to go to a hospital or a hospice and we can't really afford that right now, i twisted my ankle on my only day w/ just my dad and sisters at sixflags, she's constantly yelling at me to get off of it but i can't stay off it i have to help her! thanks for the replies so far i need them, and as for the calcium what does it do for a melanoma paitient? how does it work? would it help?

i know that this is a time i'll remember and be grateful i had this time later but it's hard to deal with. i know it's harder on her. in a few days i'll leave to start school but she won't miraculously get better. it's been like this for weeks now and the wierd thing is whenever i think the worst she makes a miraculous recovery and then when i think she's got it beat something happens, something like this. i just don't get it. i asked her about it (the calcium) and she is already taking suplements to boost it and that isn't one of her problems, mainly it's her mucsles and her siezures.