Self-Care at Home

Your health-care provider and the physician team in charge of your case should discuss details about home care with you and your family members.

• Home care usually includes supportive measures according to your symptoms.
  
  
• For example, if you have trouble walking, you probably should have a walker available at home when you need to walk.
  
  
• If you have mental status changes, a care plan should be directed to your individual needs.

If your prognosis is poor, it is appropriate to discuss options of hospice care, advance directives to doctors, and provisions for a living will.

• Home hospice care is a way of providing pain and symptom relief, as well as emotional and spiritual support for the patient and the family, at home rather than in the hospital. It involves a multidisciplinary approach that may include a physician or other care provider, nurses, a pharmacist, aides, a social worker, a spiritual caregiver, and counselors.
  
  
• Advance directive and living will are legal documents that spell out specifically which treatments are to be given and which are to be withheld. For example, a person with advanced brain cancer may not want to be put on a ventilator (breathing machine) if he or she stops breathing. You have the right to make these decisions for yourself as long as you are mentally competent.

Viewer Comments & Reviews

Brain Cancer - Symptoms at Onset of Disease

The eMedicineHealth physician editors ask:

The symptoms of brain cancer can vary greatly from patient to patient. What were your symptoms at the onset of your disease?

Anonymously share your comment to help others.
See 5 Viewer Comments & Reviews

Submit Your Review