As caregiver, you will be responsible for managing day-to-day life for both yourself and the patient. This may include routine tasks around the house, such as food preparation or travel to appointments. Other jobs can include anything from creating a safe home environment for the patient to changing surgical dressings. You could also become responsible for helping the patient with personal hygiene tasks, such as bathing, brushing teeth, and skin and hair care.

Attempting to keep life as normal as possible for yourself and for the patient can be demanding. One way to do this is to simply provide companionship to one another. It can also be helpful to participate in recreational activities with family and friends whenever possible to avoid feeling isolated.

If your duties as a caregiver are becoming too much for you to handle, you may also begin to consider home care or palliative care (specialized care for people dealing with a serious illness). The focus is to provide the patient with relief from symptoms, pain, and stress while improving quality of life. 

Learn more about assisted care options.

Time management tools

With all you need to handle, it’s important to manage your time efficiently. Scheduling both routine tasks (laundry, grocery shopping) as well as tasks related to brain tumor treatment (appointment scheduling, performing physical therapy exercises at home) can help you divide your time effectively.

Learn more about how to prioritize and navigate caregiving tasks.

Record-keeping

Because the patient may not be able to keep track of symptoms and treatments, it most often falls to the caregiver to become a record keeper. There are phone, tablet, and computer applications that can help with this.