Your smiling face at a doctor's visit can give a cancer patient support.
If you have a friend or family member diagnosed with cancer, your support can make a significant difference in their ability to cope and recover. While not all cancer patients survive, you want to deal with the situation in ways that offer appropriate measures of help. Keep in mind that the patient must have choices and input as well.
Offer to Locate Resources
When someone hears the news about having cancer, offer to help collect facts and find resources. While it's an emotional time, your cool and logical support is important. Tell the patient that you will make calls, inquire about oncologists in your area, and look for community support and information. However, ensure that the person you're supporting is amenable to your help.
Consider the Individual
Have conversations based on the person's personality. Some people, for instance, will need time to grieve the upcoming battle. Others will want to quickly locate resources and hear the scientific facts about similar cases to theirs. If you're in doubt about help, ask questions gently. Ask the cancer patient how you can help.
Devise Appropriate Steps
Get a plan in place to help. You can offer to drive the person to appointments or organize a circle of friends to take turns in care-giving. Figure out where to obtain scientific information about the type of cancer, its response to treatment and probable outcomes. This information might not be shared with the patient, but it will help to guide you in your efforts. If the cancer is advanced, or resistant to treatment, talk with others who have dealt with similar situations. The American Cancer Society can give you contact information.
Protect the Caregiver
Figure out how much you can give or do. It's vital to protect yourself, a caregiver, in the process. While you want to provide emotional and physical support to the other person, guard your own thoughts and energies. For example, if you take someone to a cancer treatment that will last several hours, leave the treatment center for a 45-minute lunch or walk around the block.
Remain Upbeat and Positive
Even if neither you nor the patient are religious, positive thinking and believing circumstances will change can have a huge effect on the body. If you have religious views, don't force them on anyone, but simply demonstrate your faith by being upbeat, positive and strong. This gives the patient a strong, reliable person to lean on.
Stay Focused and Calm
When things get shaky, act and think calmly. Most likely, there will be times when a cancer patient needs to go to the emergency room. If it's the middle of the night and that person's temperature spikes, calmly but firmly state that you'll both need to get your clothes on. Always have your clothes laid out, the car keys on the table, and plenty of gasoline in the car for those situations.
Tags: cancer patient, that person, that will, your clothes
