You may find this checklist helpful when thinking about the questions you want to ask your doctors and exercise professionals about exercise during or after cancer treatment. If they give you answers that you don’t understand, ask for clarification.
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Questions for your doctors
- Can I exercise while I’m having this treatment?
- Are there any precautions I should take or types of exercise I should avoid?
- I have a port/PICC line and/or chemo pump and/or stoma. What precautions should I take?
- I haven’t exercised much before. Do I need to have any general health checks first?
- Can you recommend an exercise professional who has experience helping people with cancer?
Questions for your exercise professionals
- What are your qualifications? Are you accredited? By which organisation?
- Have you completed any training focused on exercise for people with cancer?
- Can you talk to my medical team about my exercise program?
- What will you consider when preparing an exercise program for someone with my medical history?
- Can I start slowly?
- How will I know that I am doing the exercises correctly?
- What should I do if I feel pain when exercising?
- What if I feel too unwell to exercise?
- How long might it be before I start to see some benefits from this exercise program?
- How many appointments are we likely to need?
A/Prof Prue Cormie, Chair, COSA Exercise and Cancer Group, and Principal Research Fellow – Exercise Oncology, Australian Catholic University, NSW; Rebecca Cesnik, Accredited Exercise Physiologist, ACT; Dr Nicolas Hart, Senior Research Fellow, Exercise Medicine Research Institute, Edith Cowan University, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cancer Council WA; Stephanie Lamb, Life Now Project Officer, Cancer Council WA; John Odd, Consumer; Sharni Quinn, Clinical Lead Physiotherapist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Chris Sibthorpe, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council Queensland; Jane Turner, Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Concord Cancer Centre, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, NSW.
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