Cancer Survivor Fran Drescher’s 3 Tips on Caregiving
The Cancer Schmancer founder on how to be an empowered caregiver
It was 15 years ago when actress, comedian, producer and activist Fran Drescher (TV’s The Nanny) received the devastating diagnosis: “You have uterine cancer.”
In the wake of that scary news and her recovery, and in addition to her successful acting and producing careers, Drescher started the Cancer Schmancer Movement (based on her New York Times bestselling book of the same name). Her organization advocates for early screenings to increase cancer survivor rates. She is an instrumental voice in getting legislation passed on cancer education and is the U.S. State Department’s special envoy on women’s health. She is also a strong champion for caregivers caring for themselves as much as for those they love.
I recently talked with Drescher about why we must become empowered and educated about our own health and her for advice from her perspectives as both a patient and as a supporter of caregivers. Here are her three tips:
Tip No. 1: Survivors need caregiving partners.
Drescher understands the role of the patient and the caregiver better than most. Her journey as a cancer patient fighting to becoming a survivor taught her why the role of the caregiver alongside was essential to her ultimate health victory.
“You need a posse of people around you who understand how to support you and help you fight the good fight,” Drescher said. “But ultimately there emerges one champion, that person who can calm you down, who can ask the doctors important questions when you are in an emotionally overwhelmed state, who can take notes on how to spell the medications being prescribed and list all the treatment options. Those are all things you are unable to do because you are laying in a doctor’s office or hospital bed with that voice in your head saying ‘Why me? Why me?’ over and over. This isn’t the time to make decisions so someone needs to have all the information you can digest later when you are ready to deal with it.”
Drescher says caregivers are allies especially in a hospital setting. Her mantra about hospital stays: “They can kill you as sure as they can cure you.” It’s important, Drescher notes, that when you are the caregiver for a loved one the hospital staff sees the unity and strength in your caregiving partnership.
