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...

Caring for a mesothelioma patient can be quite challenging — emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. Whether you're just beginning to deal with your loved one's mesothelioma diagnosis or you've been caring for a mesothelioma patient for some time now, it's a good idea to gather all possible tips and helpful information. Your loved one's physician may have given you an idea of what to expect, and as you strive to provide the best possible care, the choice of where your loved one's caregiving will be provided is fundamental. Mesothelioma Cancer Nursing Care Provided There are a number of options for caring for a mesothelioma cancer patient. Your loved one's health, his or her desires and needs, your own needs, and financial factors will all play a part in the determination of where the patient's medical care will be provided. In addition, the location of the caregiving may need to change as your loved one's condition changes. The places ...

Mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a cancer associated with exposure to asbestos. Once a realatively obscure disease that meant little to the general public, mesothelioma is now known to be among the most aggressive and difficult to treat tumors oncologists yet have encountered. Nursing Diagnosis for Mesothelioma Pain Anxiety Excess fluid volume Fatigue Hopelessness Impaired gas exchange Impaired physical mobility Impaired skin integrity Ineffective airway clearance Ineffective breathing pattern Risk for infection

Treatment for malignant mesothelioma has not been found, but the people affected by this disease still prefer to undergo treatment with a mixture of methods or participate in various clinical trials. Various kinds of mesothelioma treatment techniques regularly performed with surgical procedures, drug therapy, and radiation therapy. Although this treatment is most often found, you can find other treatment options that are now growing in popularity. Several treatment options, which are gene therapy, immunotherapy, and photodynamic therapy. The different surgical procedures performed on patients with malignant mesothelioma there are 3 types of palliative surgical procedures, surgical procedures diagnostic, curative surgical procedure. Palliative surgery aimed at reducing the symptoms and eliminate all cancer cells. However, this type of operation is not recommended. The purpose of curative surgery is to remove as much mesothelioma cancer, hoping this type of therapy to fully...

Symptoms or signs of mesothelioma may not appear until 20 to 50 years (or more) after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath, cough, and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space (pleural effusion) are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma . Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and cachexia, abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other symptoms of Peritoneal Mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face. These symptoms may be caused by mesotheliom a or by other, less serious conditions. Mesothelioma that affects the pleura can cause these signs and symptoms : Chest wall pain Pleural effusion, or fluid surrounding the lung Shortness of breath Fatigue or anemia Wheezing, hoarseness, or...

Mesothelioma, more precisely malignant mesothelioma, is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, the mesothelium. It is usually caused by exposure to asbestos. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and internal chest wall), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity), the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart), or the tunica vaginalis (a sac that surrounds the testis). Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways. It has also been suggested that washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos can put a person at risk for developing mesothelioma. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking, but smoking greatly increases the risk of other asbestos-induced cancers. Those who have been exposed to asbe...