Cancer Care Services That Matter Most To Families
Cancer is hard enough on the person that has it. It is even more difficult on spouses and children who cannot do anything to make the family member with cancer feel better. However, there are many cancer centers in the U.S. that realize that cancer hurts more than just the person with the disease. As such, they have made their cancer care services focus on the entire family unit. If you are currently being treated for cancer, or someone very near and dear to your heart is, here are some of the more excellent and comforting services being offered by these family-focused treatment centers.
Bedside Comfort
When a child or spouse is sick, you want to be right next to them the whole time. If you can take time off from work to do this, you should. If you are the one who is sick, it helps when your family can be present. Either way, bedside comfort comes in the form of larger beds or additional beds placed close to yours. You can snuggle with a spouse and you can cuddle with children because of this level of comfort provided by a cancer center.
Cost-Free Housing Close By
Children's cancer centers provide another free benefit. They provide cost-free housing so that you can be as close to your child as you can be without being right beside him or her all night. Because of safety and confidentiality, most children's cancer care centers cannot have parents staying the night, unless you pay extra for your child to have a private room. Even so, knowing that you do not have to pay for an apartment nearby and you do not have to shoulder most of the costs associated with treating your child's cancer can be very comforting.
Advances in Medicines and Research
There are a number of research hospitals that work to find new treatments and new treatment approaches every day. These particular research hospitals have untested medicines and medicines in clinical research trials that give patients an opportunity to test a new drug while simultaneously (and hopefully) curing their own form of cancer. Families want every possible chance at helping each other to live, survive, and beat cancer, and these hospitals can offer that.
Grief Counseling
It is not fair, nor is it right, but sadly, not everyone wins their personal battle with cancer. If you are about to lose a family member, or you have just lost a family member, having a grief counselor on hand is vital to your own survival. It is even a good idea to begin seeing the grief counselor while your family member is in treatment. You will find that it helps you accept the situation better, and prepare you for the worst while you hope for the best.
Leaving Pain Free
Finally, the biggest question every patient with cancer has is "Will it hurt?" It is asked when they first start treatment, and it is also asked by family members who know that nothing more can be done and the patient is going to leave them soon. If you are asking for a family member who is not long for this world, you are asking with the hope that there are some comfort measures that can be administered.
The answers are always "No, it will not hurt, " and "Yes, we have some IV medications that can provide a lot of pain relief and comfort as a person passes." That is exactly what most patients and their surviving family members want to hear, as it makes this transition period less difficult for all of them.