Cancer Treatment Options Forum - March 18th, 2011 - 2 Comments
My daugher in law just had surgery due to breast cancer, in a week she will be going in for radiation treatmen?
She will be going for radiation treatments, me and my wife have offered to watch her daughter + our grandaughter, how much more can we offer her and what is the process of these treatments?
I’m a surgical resident and spent a month on the oncology service a few months back and really got a chance to understand how cancer treatments work. The actual radiation treatment only takes about ten minutes, so your daughter in law can expect to be at the treatment site anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour for each treatment.
I think it’s great that you’ve offered to help take care of your granddaughter because the treatments can leave your daughter in law exhausted. She’s going to need all the support you can give her. Many of my patients have family members who are bringing over food that can be easily reheated so they don’t have to expend their precious energy cooking. Offering to pick items up from the store for her would probably be a very welcome help to her, as well. It’s little things like that she’s going to need help with. Most importantly, emotional support is what she’s going to need. If she needs to talk, listen. If she doesn’t feel like opening up, just be there with her, holding her hand when she needs it. Trying to keep her spirits up and having a positive attitude will only help the situation.
I wish her the best in her treatments.
radiation is VERY Simple. And only takes 3 minutes of her time once a day. I assume she is going for 6 weeks? She may experience some tiredness within about the 4th week of radiation. She may have mild redness (sunburn like skin) but other than that, it is a very simple procedure