No matter how old you are, when you find out that your parent has a serious illness like cancer, it can knock the wind out of you. If your senior parent has recently been diagnosed with cancer and you’re feeling a little lost and not sure what to do next, don’t worry. You can get through this and provide your senior parent with the support they need during this time.
Even though you can’t fight this battle for your senior parent, you can help them through it. By providing your senior parent with physical and emotional support from a senior home care agency, you will be helping them be strong enough to fight the cancer.
These are some things that you can do right now to help your senior parent after a cancer diagnosis:
Get Senior Home Care
Cancer treatment is tough for everyone, but it can be more difficult for seniors who are already frail and may have other illnesses. Seniors who are fighting cancer and living at home should have senior home care.
A senior home care provider can be there every day to make sure your senior parent is eating, getting enough water, getting enough rest, and taking their medications. A senior home care provider can also do the household management tasks that have to get done like shopping and cleaning.
Make A Plan For Medical Visits
If you have kids or work, you may not be able to attend all of your senior parents’ medical visits. When it comes to cancer treatment, you may not be able to select appointments because of limited availability. Your senior parent may have to go to appointments at inconvenient times.
A senior home care provider can take your senior parent to their medical appointments and stay with them so they don’t have to be alone when you can’t be there.
Start A Binder
Your senior parent is going to need to keep their medical records, treatment notes, insurance information, and other paperwork at their fingertips when they go to medical appointments. A great way to make that information easy to transport and accessible is to put all of those pages in page protectors, sort them, and put them in a three-ring binder. The binder can be taken to medical appointments and easily updated with new information.
Reassure Your Parent
Your senior parent is probably more scared than you are. Make sure that you take some time to comfort them. Let them know you’ll be there with them through this fight, and they won’t have to go through it alone.
Talk to them about getting senior home care. Ask them what other support they might need and be prepared to provide it if you can.
Get Some Rest
This is not going to be an easy or quick battle, but your senior parent can hang in there through cancer treatment. You should get some rest and start taking care of yourself. They will need you, so you need to get some rest, eat healthy, and exercise.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Home Care in East Lake, CA, please contact the caring staff at A Caring Touch Home Care today. Call (619) 344-0528
A Caring Touch Home Care is a Trusted Home Care Agency providing exceptional home care in Coronado, Del Mar/Del Mar Heights, Bonita, East Lake, La Jolla, Torrey Pines, Mt. Helix/La Mesa, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Carmel Ranch, Rancho Penasquitos, Point Loma, Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego and surrounding areas.
