Nursing Blog

by: Evan Langsted If you are a caregiver for someone with mesothelioma, you already know, or are learning quickly, how drastically your routines must change. Fortunately, there are seemingly endless sources of support for you as the caregiver, as well as for your loved one with this diagnosis. Start with an Internet search to learn about mesothelioma (the disease, causes, treatments, care giving, support, options–everything you can find) and print out as much as you can. You won’t be able to remember it all. Make a file and organize it into categories so that you can easily find what you need when you need to know it. Then devise a plan to investigate each aspect of your care giving in an orderly manner. If you jump around from topic to topic, you’ll surely get confused, forget things and become overwhelmed. Make notes and file them with your topics. Also, be aware that there are many sites that offer unreliable or biased information, so consider your sources carefully. One place to st

by: Wendy Moyer Mesothelioma victims can experience a substantial amount of pain. However, there are medications that can make them more comfortable. Experiencing a physical pain in one's chest or abdomen may be the first sign of mesothelioma. And, if the disease has spread, people may also feel pain in other parts of their body. As the disease spreads and the mesothelioma tumor grows other symptoms may appear. What is the Cause of Mesothelioma Pain? One of the most common symptoms of mesothelioma is a buildup of fluids. As a mesothelioma tumor gets larger it produces a fluid in the patient's abdomen or chest. If the fluid is in a person's chest it will compress the lung and can cause severe pain. As the fluid increases it will slowly crush vital organs. When that happens a person usually loses his appetite and often finds it very difficult to sleep. It can be challenging to completely eliminate the pain but there are a number of proven ways to reduce any discomfort. This s

by: Wendy Moyer Mesothelioma is a relatively rare malignancy that is usually comes about as the result of a person's being exposed to asbestos. This form of cancer arises most frequently in the pleura - the cells that line the chest - or in the peritoneum - the cells that line the abdomen. The most common form of this disease is pleural mesothelioma and its symptoms often present themselves in the chest area. What are the Symptoms of Mesothelioma? Peritoneal mesothelioma is considerably rarer than pleural mesothelioma. If a person has peritoneal mesothelioma the organs in the abdomen are affected and the symptoms may include abdominal swelling, vomiting, nausea, and bowel obstruction. The rarest type of this disease, pericardial mesothelioma, involves the sac that surrounds the heart. Most of the people who have mesothelioma complain of a shortness of breath. Their difficulty breathing is sometimes accompanied by chest pains. What may come as a surprise is that the chest pain is n

The normal temperature varies by person, age, time of day, and where on the body the temperature was taken. The average normal body temperature is 98.6°F (37°C). Your body temperature is usually highest in the evening. It can be raised by physical activity, strong emotion, eating, heavy clothing, medications, high room temperature, and high humidity. Daily variations change as children get older: In children younger than 6 months of age, the daily variation is small. In children 6 months to 2 years old, the daily variation is about 1 degree. By age 6, daily variations gradually increase to 2 degrees per day. Body temperature varies less in adults. However, a woman's menstrual cycle can raise temperature by one degree or more. For information on when to call a doctor due to specific temperatures and ages, see the article on fever.