Palliative care can help you manage breast cancer. A diagnosis of serious breast cancer is scary. You’re faced with treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, and side effects and symptoms such as pain, nausea, fatigue and anxiety. Things can feel overwhelming. Palliative care will help. Here’s what you need to know… 1. Palliative care is a specialised type of medical...
For many people, accessing effective palliative care will mean the ability to live longer and to experience each moment of their lives more fully as a result of effective pain and symptom management, and holistic assessment of physical, psychological, social, emotional and spiritual needs. But many misunderstand it, or can’t afford it. Palliative care has had a bad rap. It’s often underutilised...
Read about an advance care plan and download one here too.
Consider joining one of these active support groups which connect cancer patients, their loved ones and caregivers with others who have “been there”, and provide a safe place to share and work through feelings and challenges. Hearing the news that you or someone you love has cancer is devastating, and can set off a range of emotional responses: shock, anger and disbelief. You...
Take a look at this list of questions to ask your palliative care doctor so you feel informed and empowered during your illness. When you’re diagnosed with a serious illness, it’s common to have a mixture of many emotions – fear, anger, sadness, anxiety, guilt. But also, if you have had symptoms for a long time or have undergone many...
We answer some of the most commonly asked questions around palliative care from patients and their families. Do I need to stop seeing my oncologist if I start to see a palliative care doctor?No, palliative care is an extra layer of support and the palliative care doctor will work alongside your oncologist and any other involved healthcare practitioners such as your...
