(gentle music) - Hello, my name is Chris Armes with Nashville General Hospital.

On today's "For Your Good Health", we're going to talk about rehabilitation for cancer patients and cancer survivors.

(gentle music) We really try to educate the patient on how chemotherapy and radiation are working to kill the cancer, but there's gonna be some effects that are not so positive also, and we're working on mitigating what we can for those negative effects.

For our patients that have a physical problem and need physical or occupational therapy, we might start seeing them at the beginning of their treatment too, to start a home exercise program for them to do throughout their cancer.

For the patients that have head and neck cancer, it's very important for them to have therapy because the patients that have therapy and continue swallowing throughout their treatment do better with maintaining an oral diet.

For the patients that need physical and occupational therapy, it's important for them to have that range of motion, and if they know how to work their bodies and be able to combat the effects of chemo and radiation, they're better able to move afterward.

There's some things to do to help you maintain and keep that level of independence and regain the things that you may have lost while you're going through treatment.

I'm gonna check in with you, are things working?

If they're not working, how can we make some modifications and check in with them as they're going along to make sure that they're getting the benefit of the exercises.

We always tell them we're looking long term, you know, we want them to get back to whatever it is they want to do, and we're trying to educate them on the steps that we know work for them to get to there.

It's hard now, but you're gonna see the benefit of the future if we can do a routine of some sort, even if it's just once a week.

You know, aim for three or four times a week, but do something to keep your muscles moving, whether it's your arm, your leg, you know, your swallowing muscles.

It's going to help in the long run.

Again, my name is Chris Armes.

Thank you for watching "For Your Good Health".

We hope you found this information helpful.

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