Caring for Yourself While Caregiving for a Loved One With Cancer
- Caregiving for someone with ovarian cancer can take up every moment of your free time, and you may need help.
- Your new role can affect your health and physical well-being, your finances, your social life, and your mental state.
- Take time to care for yourself and do the things that bring you joy. Go for walks, pray or meditate, watch a movie, or talk with friends.
"Caregiving is a huge job. It’s going to impact your health and your physical well-being. It will impact your finances, your social life, your emotions, and your mental energy," Amy Brown, nurse manager of Gynecologic/Oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, tells SurvivorNet.
Read More Caregiving can suck up every moment of your free time. Realize that you may need help. "I learned this the hard way myself," Brown says. "I have been the caregiver to my dad for 12 years. And I'm a nurse and I'm designed and equipped to handle that, and I tried to do it myself and failed miserably." She stresses the importance of caring for yourself while you care for your loved one. "Get sleep, eat well, exercise. Find something that brings you joy every day, whether it is going for a walk, praying, meditating, watching a movie, listening to an audio book, or getting together with friends." Though caregiving can be a difficult and sometimes thankless job, it can be very rewarding as well. "Even though this is not what you signed up for, this is not how you planned your life, and this may be the biggest crisis of your life that you didn't see coming, it has the potential to be incredibly meaningful," Brown says.
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