Taking care of cancer patients at home

Cancer patients in different stages of treatment will want to recuperate at home. However, for family members who are unfamiliar with caring routines and sudden situations, they may feel a considerable amount of pressure, even though resting at home is indeed a positive help to patients.

Registered nurse Hailey Yuen of the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society - Jockey Club “Walking Hand-in-Hand “Cancer Family Support Project explains that hospitals are generally crowded and the feeling of being a patient can be upsetting to them. Back home, however, patients can relax and won’t feel as lonely. In addition, on the road to recovery, when patients lack motivation and are resistant to changing their daily habits to improve physically, having family support and doing it together helps them to more easily adapt.

When patients need additional care, hospitals will usually arrange for occupational or physical therapists to teach family members basic care techniques, such as the proper way to help them into bed or into a wheelchair; how to prevent pressure sores; how to help them bathe, etc. They will also teach family members how to protect themselves from injury.

Hailey has the following tips that sometimes can be easy to forget or ignore:

• Vomiting and pain medications need to be taken early to be effective
• During chemotherapy, the mouth may bleed or have ulcers. Brush gently using a child's soft toothbrush. This will avoid injuring the mouth and gums
• Do qigong-type exercises, since they are more static and can be done any time at home. They’re a good rehabilitative exercise choice!

Many families will hire domestic helpers as a convenient way to take care of cancer patients at home. However, it’s impossible not to worry about whether or not the helper can handle the heavy pressure and quit. So how should we communicate with our domestic helpers and face the problems together, so that everyone will have a relatively better life? Here’s Hailey to share some of her experiences with us.