A family's experiences caregiving for a parent dying of brain cancer
One of my greatest sources of stress after my father’s initial brain cancer diagnosis was not knowing what to expect of him over the forthcoming days, weeks, and months. Doctors had been clear about the timeline for medical procedures but not on the speed or severity with which the cancer would affect his functions. I [...]
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It’s still so hard to deal with this topic. It was always hard to talk about the caregiving process and my father’s brain cancer while I was in the thick of it, so writing about it in my free time became unthinkable. I always had the hope of using what I had learned to make [...]
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Yesterday, suddenly, my father’s right side became so weak he could not stand. His speech slurred. It reminded me of when I admitted him to hospital back in October when I thought he was having a stroke. My thoughts were in contrast to what I should have been feeling. I should have been in great [...]
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I started this blog to share my experiences with other caregivers lost in the medical, financial, and legal chaos that ensues from a life-threatening diagnosis. Instead I find an unavoidable urge to vent about the misery that has consumed me. Jonathan Rauch’s article in the Atlantic is like reading a better written summary of my [...]
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His reactions are difficult to understand. To my wife, he can’t be in the same room with her. To the home health aide, he often gets angry and utters obscenities. To me, he is always kind and understanding, or at the very least, silent about his disapprovals. To the children, my father is lovely. For [...]
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Prior to confronting a life-threatening health event, all the information we are societally provided is engineered towards the best possible medical outcome, so it is a shock when a medical outcome is just one of several matters that must be considered when the cancer bombshell is dropped. For example, in the American medical “system” inadequate [...]
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Humor seems so simple. If what was happening to father wasn’t so terrible, the changes in his thought process as a result of the brain cancer would be fascinating. Most recently we noticed he is not able to comprehend humorous circumstances like he used to. The impact on his brain certainly furthered the minor paranoia [...]
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As I write these entries, I won’t be generalizing. The problems I mention are really very specific to my father’s situation. As far as I know, brain cancer can affect any region of the brain. Because our brain has compartmentalized tasks and brain cancer, at least initially, affects a tiny area, the impact on the [...]
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