My boyfriends mom is going through chemo currently. He is going home for Christmas and I would like to send a nice gift/care package. What kinds of things should I put in? Useful, cheerful, things to pass the time, things to help with the side effects...any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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A basic chemo basket might include:
-Unscented lotion. Chemo patient often suffer from dry skin. Make sure it's hypoallergenic.
-Lemon drops or sugarless gum. Chemo can affect the taste buds and lemon or gum can can cut "chemo mouth".
-Hats/scarves. Not all chemo regimens cause hair loss but many do. Most breast cancer regimens, for instance, result in total or near total hair loss.
-Hand sanitizer. Chemo affects the production of white blood cells so chemo patients have to be extra careful to stay germ-free.
-Travel tissues. Disappearing nose hairs result in a constantly dripping nose!
-A water bottle. Chemo patients need to drink a ton of water to stay hydrated.
-Crackers or other small travel snacks. Eating small amounts of food frequently can help ward off nausea.
You might want to give her a comfy blanket. Chemo is exhausting and as a chemo patient she may spend a lot of time crashed out on the couch. It's nice to have something to curl up in.
Books or audiobooks are also good. I'd keep it light, both in terms of subject matter and difficulty level. I'm a pretty voracious reader but since starting chemo I haven't been able to concentrate on anything too heavy. I loved Tina Fey's Bossypants.
Do you know if there are any special foods she's enjoying these days? If so, you could make single portion (or double portion if she feeds your boyfriend's dad) servings in inexpensive plasticware for her to put in her fridge or freezer and pull out whenever she's not up to cooking.
Tiny
Audio books/books on cd. It can be hard to concentrate enough to read while on chemo drugs. Download a bunch of good audio books by her favorite author(s) and load them up on an inexpensive mp3 player or Nook etc.
It might sound cliche' but getting her a nice cozy blanket and pillow would be a very nice gift( I mean a really soft plush "throw style" blanket. Maybe get her an assortment of gums and candies to eat while getting the chemo treatments(chemo drugs can put a very bad taste in your mouth it is nice to mask them with candy--cinnamon candy worked well for me) Just try and put yourself in her shoes-- like if you had the flu for 4-6 months--what would help you cope?
Meg
The other answers have some great ideas but added to that maybe some nice lip balm or a hand held fan for those hot flushes or some of the bottled mist stuff to squirt on you to cool you down. A magazine as as the others have said, reading is just a bit too much.
A blanket is a great idea too, it doesn't have to be big, just one of those ones that you have across the bottom of your bed. I was given a home made quilt and it was lovely.