When you are being, or have been treated, for cancer, your strength and mobility may need some attention. Cancer rehabilitation, also known as cancer rehab or oncology rehabilitation, consists of services and therapies designed to improve strength and restore functioning following cancer. Cape Cod Healthcare offers this service at Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital as part of our commitment to caring for you as a whole person at all stages of treatment and recovery.
How Cancer Rehab Helps You
Our services help you achieve goals, rebuild skills and recover motion, muscle control, strength and independence. Our specially-trained therapists use specific interventions to increase, improve or manage:
- Mobility, including scar management techniques for supple, pain-free mobility in affected areas.
- Muscle strength, function and endurance.
- Skin sensitivity
- Communication skills
- Swallowing function
How Do I Know If Cancer Rehab Will Help Me?
If you have experienced one or more of the following issues, you can benefit from cancer rehabilitation:
- Loss of mobility/muscle tightness
- Postural deficits
- Loss of strength
- Swelling/lymphedema
- Pain/discomfort
- Decreased ability to perform daily activities
- Tight, painful or thickened scars
- Difficulty talking/slurred speech
- Decreased sensation and/or hypersensitivity
- Difficulty swallowing or eating
- Decreased ability to participate in sports or hobbies
- Postural deficits
What Techniques Do We Use?
We can help you with your recovery through a variety of interventions, such as:
- Scar management/massage techniques, soft tissue mobilization, taping, skin desensitization
- Stretching activities to lengthen muscles and tissues tightened by surgery and adjuvant therapies
- Strengthening exercises/progressive exercise programs
- Edema management and education
- Postural exercises and education
- Therapeutic activities and exercise
- Oral-motor exercises, teaching compensatory strategies
Living Fit For You! Cancer Wellness Program
Overall wellness is an essential component of cancer recovery and quality survivorship. Our Living Fit For You! wellness program is offered at Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital and includes:
- Cancer rehabilitation evaluation including muscle mass, strength, shortness of breath, endurance, weight loss, balance, tingling feet or hands, low energy, fatigue, speech and cognitive issues and difficulty swallowing
- A wellness consultation for fatigue management, stress reduction, distress, nutrition services, diabetes education and sleep issues
- A free six-week exercise program before, during or after treatment to help preserve muscle mass and strength, prevent unwanted weight changes, improve energy levels and reduce the severity of treatment side effects
For questions about Living Fit For You!, please contact exercise physiologist Kristine Whaples, MS, RCEP, at 508-495-7685.
