Written By Tony Subia
August 16, 2022

If you were to ask a previous caregiver if they took too much responsibility on their own, they would probably would say yes, and wished they would have asked other family members for help much sooner. Giving care to a loved-one with pancreatic cancer is an exhausting job to handle alone. Particularly if the patient is just beginning recovery from a very difficult Whipple Procedure Surgery or in the process of beginning chemotherapy and radiation treatment which have many side effects.

The downside of “biting off too much to do” is that exhaustion often limits available time to to give adequate care to the patient which may slow-down the patients pace of recovery. It takes many weeks for a patient to recover from surgery. Just imagine how much more care will be needed as patient enters phases of chemotherapy and radiation treatment which brings a new set of grueling side effects.

As the main caregiver, you should not hesitate asking for help and assistance. When you get help, you will have more energy to handle the more difficult and time consuming care giving. There are many menial jobs that can be spread to others. Others may even have more available time to dedicate to giving care and may even have more care giving skill sets than you do.

As the “Lead Care Giver”, you should take the responsibility of taking the patient to follow-up doctor visits so you have first-hand information to share with the rest of the patient’s cancer care team. Keep a written journal as reminders of giving specific, vital care.

Before asking other family members for help, know what their limitations may be. They may live too far away to help other than than offering help with finances. Others have health care problems of their own, full time jobs that are very demanding of their time or may have young families with young children the consumes a great deal of time.

However. There are menial ways to help that collectively will take a great deal of stress from you. Even teenagers are able to help in many ways. Following are things that others could help do to help:

• Cooking Meals
• Cleaning House
• Doing Laundry
• Grocery Shopping
• Picking Up Prescriptions
• Yard Work and Maintenance
• If You’re At Long Distance, Call the Patient Often To Keep His or Her Spirits Up
• Young Grandchildren Could Have Fun Visits The Patient Will Enjoy

Always ask for help congenially. Be careful not to create family friction. That could cause the patient to feel guilty and can adversely affect the emotional recovery of the patient.

Source Reference: National Cancer Institute