Care givers have the power…
We’re not doctors. We’re not nurses. We ARE care givers.
What we bring to the cancer table is very important and what we learn as care givers over the course of our loved ones’ treatment can not be held close.
We must reach out and share this knowledge.
So many of us are so tired at the end of this road that all we want to do is forget what we’ve just been through.
But believe it or not, we now have a new skill and it’s an important skill and can’t be forgotten. Too many others need to know what’s ahead. They need to know they will be tested in ways they never imagined. They need to learn to ‘talk’ to their loved ones, who are now cancer patients. They need to go easy on these new patients who will no longer be the people they once were.
Life will change is every way. We’ve lived it. Now it’s our turn to help the next care giver-to-be with the information they’ll need to make this road smoother.
Find a place to share your knowledge. Find a way to help. Care givers have the power.
March 17, 2014 @ 1:38 pm
For some of us, there is no end to the caregiver road. My husband was diagnosed in 2007; radical neck disection, chemo and radiation followed. The cancer is gone but the treatments left my husband permanently damaged. He had to take early retirement, and since the treatment ended he has had more difficulty eating, multiple pneumonias that were the result of aspirating food and which came close to killing him on more than one occassion. Permanent feeding tube now, and lung problems. We clung to the idea of “an end to the road” and being able to forget. that is not the road that cancer led us down. we are grateful to be traveling the road together still, but at times still struggle with acceptance.
March 14, 2014 @ 10:13 pm
When I look back at my caregiver days, I realize that I was so unprepared for what was ahead. In addition to the shock of a cancer diagnosis, I was woefully uninformed about medical insurance, treatment options, and how to proceed in general. As I have mentioned before, when I discovered Leroy, I felt that he was making a gift to both patients and caregivers everywhere. It will well worth it for “newbies” to the cancer world to take time to read the archives.
March 14, 2014 @ 7:17 pm
Excellent advice Laurie.