Category Archives: Cancer Caregivers

Cancer Caregiver Tips: Talking About Cancer with Your Loved One

Cancer Caregiver Tips: Talking About Cancer with Your Loved One
Cancer Caregiver Tips: Talking About Cancer with Your Loved One

Are you a cancer caregiver who’s tiptoeing around your loved one because you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing? Use these tips to guide your conversations in positive and helpful directions.

Tips for Talking to a Cancer Patient

  • Don’t stress about coming up with the perfect words. This is a new situation for both of you. If you don’t know what to say, be honest about it. Your loved one will let you know what he or she needs.
  • Keep the focus on the patient. You’re there to help them, not the other way around. Talk to another friend or family member if you need a sounding board.
  • Avoid clichés or dismissive comments like “You’ll be fine” or “At least you got the ‘good’ cancer.” Of course you don’t want to be a source of doom and gloom, but minimizing the situation doesn’t make the patient feel any better.
  • Every case of cancer is different. Don’t bring up friends, family members or acquaintances and compare their situations.
  • Don’t ask for details about their cancer treatment such as blood test results or possible side effects. Let them share information if they like, but respect their personal boundaries.
  • Sometimes no words are necessary. Your loved one might want you to provide a sympathetic ear, or may prefer a period of silence. Be willing to graciously accommodate their wishes.

Personalized Cancer Treatment from Issels®

Your experience with cancer is unique, so your treatment should be also. Visit our website to learn more about cancer vaccines and other individually tailored and integrative immunotherapy for cancer treatments.

Cancer Caregivers: What to Expect When You Step Into the Role

Cancer Caregivers: What to Expect When You Step Into the Role
Cancer Caregivers: What to Expect When You Step Into the Role

Cancer brings major changes to the life of a patient, but becoming a caregiver can be equally challenging. Here’s some information to help you prepare for your tough but rewarding new role.

Tips for Becoming a Cancer Caregiver

1. Ask for Help

No matter how invested you are in the job, you won’t be able to do it all. Don’t feel guilty about enlisting help as needed.

2. Be Prepared to Hear “No”

Not everyone will be willing to assist, even those who make a vague offer to help. Instead of passing judgment and letting resentment build up, either talk to the person about what’s bothering them or simply let it go.

3. Take Care of Your Own Health

You won’t be much help if you’re feeling tired and run-down. Make time to relax and enjoy some of your favorite activities.

4. Maintain Your Regular Routine

Follow your own daily routine as much as possible. You’ll have to make some concessions of your time, but stress can build up if the disconnect from your normal life is too great.

5. Create a Support Network

Despite your good intentions, caring for a cancer patient is bound to cause occasional thoughts of frustration, anger and fear. Talk about your feelings with a family member or close friend. You might also consider seeing a therapist or joining a support group.

Personally Tailored Immunotherapy for Cancer at Issels®

No two cancer patients have the same needs from caregivers or treatment, so our integrative immunotherapy for cancer programs are created for each individual’s case. Visit our website for more information.

Help Survivors and Patients by Giving the Gift of Your Time – Ways to Volunteer Locally

Enrich Your Life By Helping Others.
Enrich Your Life By Helping Others.

If you’re like most people, cancer is a cause that’s near and dear to your heart. Almost everyone knows someone who has battled this dreadful disease, or is currently receiving cancer treatment. Maybe in your life, that someone is yourself.

Here at Issels®, we know the importance of volunteers in this field. This is why we want to offer you some incredible volunteer opportunities as a way to give back.

Volunteer Your Time for a Great Cause

There are many ways you can give your time to support cancer research and improved cancer treatments. Some of these include:

  • Road to Recovery – There is always a need for people to drive patients to and from their cancer treatments.
  • Making Strides Against Breast Cancer – This is a community event that raises money for breast cancer research.
  • The Relay for Life – This is another community event that you can participate in to raise funds for cancer research.
  • Look Good, Feel Better – This is a wonderful opportunity that allows you to personally touch the lives of cancer patients. You’ll help them learn various beauty tricks and improve the way they feel.

Ways You Can Make a Difference for Those Receiving Cancer Treatment

Maybe you’re not quite sure where you fit in. There is a need for all kinds of help. What are your strengths? Maybe you enjoy:

  • Administrative or clerical work
  • Promoting events online or through social media
  • Organizing recreational activities
  • Helping to raise money

Whatever you enjoy, there is a place for you.

If you would like to learn more about immunotherapy and its place in cancer treatment, please contact us.

Find Out What to Expect When You Become a Cancer Caregiver

Improving the Lives of Others Can Help Improve Your Own Life.
Improving the Lives of Others Can Help Improve Your Own Life.

Has a loved one recently been diagnosed with cancer? Assuming the responsibilities of becoming a caregiver can seem overwhelming. Here are some cancer caregiver tips that will help you to better perform your role while maintaining your own physical and mental well-being.

Caring for a Cancer Patient

• The caregiver role is fluid. Duties can change based on factors such as where a patient is in the treatment process and whether he or she is staying in a hospital or at home.

• Caregivers are vital members of a patient’s healthcare team. Meet with the doctors frequently and don’t be afraid to speak up if you have questions or need more clarification.

• Talk to your loved one about how much they want to share with friends and family members and keep others updated accordingly.

• Everyone has their own way of coping with illness. Be available, but respect the patient’s wishes if he or she wants to be alone or doesn’t want to talk.

Caring for the Caregiver

Caregiver is a rewarding role, but the road can be bumpy. Don’t feel guilty if you experience sadness, fatigue or grief. Joining a support group, either in person or online, can be a great source of strength.

• Have some friends or family members who can assist or even take over temporarily if you need a break.

• Plan activities such as workouts or movie outings that will help you maintain balance.

Issels® Is a Resource for Patients and Caregivers

Visit our website for more cancer caregiver tips as well as information about our personally created immunotherapy treatment programs, including cancer vaccines and NK cells.

New to Cancer Caregiving? Not Sure What to Do?

New to Cancer Caregiving?
New to Cancer Caregiving?

If you’re not careful, becoming a cancer caregiver can become one of the most stressful experiences of your life. However, it doesn’t always have to turn out that way. What might have been a frustrating time can become one of the most rewarding times you have ever experienced. Here at Issels®, we want nothing more than to equip you for what lies ahead. To do that, we want to provide you with some essential cancer caregiver tips.

What to Expect as a Caregiver for Someone with Cancer

If you’re caring for someone with cancer, it’s important to know what you can expect. Many people find it to be a pleasant experience. Spouses, siblings and other close relatives often find themselves as caregivers for family members with cancer. However, others may fill this role too. For example, neighbors and even co-workers can also be cancer caregivers.

On the other hand, you may feel as though this role is being forced upon you. It might not be something you’re willing to take on, so it’s important for you to be clear about your boundaries from the very beginning.

The Best Cancer Caregiver Tips

As a caregiver, you need to set healthy boundaries and take care of yourself too. These cancer caregiver tips will help you to do that. You should always:

• Look for signs of depression within yourself

• Find your own support system

• Get plenty of exercise

• Eat a health diet

• Consider getting personal counseling

• Take some time for yourself

At Issels®, we take care of our patients’ caregivers too. If you need more information about our immunotherapy services, please contact us.

What Are the Healing Benefits of the Human Touch for Cancer Patients?

Human Touch

If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, “the human touch” is more than just a figure of speech. Hands-on therapies can help reduce stress, boost your spirits, and reduce physical pain.

How “Healing Hands” Boost the Fight against Cancer

There is scientific research to back up the positive claims of touch therapy. One widely publicized study involved a group of married women who were threatened with a mild electric shock, but their anxiety levels dropped instantly with a touch from their husbands’ hands.

Chronic stress and depression inhibit your body’s immune system, making it more vulnerable to invading cancer cells. Touch therapy can improve your overall wellness so you’re better equipped to fight the disease.

3 Popular Touch Therapy Techniques:

  • Body psychotherapy goes beyond talk therapy, helping you tune in to bodily sensations that uncover deep emotional traumas. Methods focus on various elements such as muscle contraction, breathing and posture.
  • Physical therapy addresses pain and limited movement in muscles, joints and other tissues. According to one study, women who had undergone breast cancer surgery and worked with a physical therapist had less pain and better quality of life than others who exercised on their own.
  • Massage therapy may seem like a luxury, but it actually triggers brain activity that increases serotonin, a mood-elevating chemical, and reduces the stress hormone cortisol.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: An Integrative Approach

At Issels®, our innovative immunotherapy for cancer uses a comprehensive mind-body approach to attack cancer cells while restoring your natural immune response. Visit our website for more information about our non-toxic, personally tailored treatment programs.