I basically counsel cancer patients who are affected in their head and neck regions and I address the psychological aspects and their family issues. Apart from that I also do tobacco cessation counselling which is a grave consequence that that causes this cancer or heart attack. I also give therapies to cancer patients to cope, to manage, their side effects of chemotherapy as well as radiotherapy. Apart from that we also go to the villages to conduct free cancer screening camps and my role there is to address the village people to keep away from the use of tobacco. In the breath exercise I teach them Nadi Sodhana and Dirga Swasam; in Nadi Sodhana I teach them about the left nostril right nostril breathing and in Dirga Swasam the breath exercise which is a deep inhale and an exhale process, that helps them to constitute their immunity and cope with the side effects of cancer treatment drugs.
Apart from that to improve the functioning of the five senses of the cancer patients we give them visual imagery, for example walking through a garden and walking along the seashore or climbing a mountain, which will help them to rekindle their five senses and that way increase their immunity and have a good lifestyle apart from the treatment of cancer.
Every day I go to the cancer wards and see the patients who are admitted under the head and neck unit. Apart from that I also see new radiation patients who are enrolled for radiation treatment. Because initially, before they go with the start of day one radiation, there will be a lot of anxiety among them.
What is a typical day like for you?
As in India the radiation we tell them as electricity in Tamil but we explain to them briefly that only gamma rays are high energy X-rays that pass to the tumour site and not electricity. So that helps them to get relieved of the fear they have over the radiation treatment. The new patients who are seeing the radiation patients who are already going through the treatment, they have the fear that whether they’ll be able to cope with up to six weeks of radiation therapy. So those issues will also be addressed, for example managing their oral hygiene; managing the radiation part from getting any scars or being wounded. Then we also recommend them to use the mouthwash as directed by the medical officers, maybe three or five times as requested.
One of the important things, we ask them if they have any doubts regarding diet. If they have any doubts we ask the dietician to come and talk to them because that will help them to strengthen their immunity to cope with the radiation treatment. Of course, many patients complain about insomnia due to their anxiety and due to the treatment side effects so for them we give them these relaxation therapies, this visual imagery which helps them to improve their five senses and cope with their treatment.
