September 02, 2025

Therapy During and After Cancer Treatment in Elizabethtown, KY

Therapy is important during and after cancer treatment to help the patients return to their quality of life that they had before the diagnosis of cancer. They will need therapy to help them build back their strength and endurance and to prevent them from developing lymphedema. Almost any cancer diagnosis would benefit from therapy treatment during and after their treatment. That intervention might be they need strengthening, they might need endurance training, they might benefit from speech therapy if their swallow is affected or if they need speech training after their treatment.

So any cancer diagnosis would benefit from therapy. Patients that come to therapy, some of the challenges they might experience are diagnosis of lymphedema, which is a swelling and accumulation of fluid in an extremity that can impact their independence. It can be debilitating for that patient. Patients also will experience a decrease in endurance because of different treatment options that they have and a decrease in their strength.

All those challenges together will cause the patient to feel like they're less independent in their activities of daily living. We also are looking to get them back into whatever work that they love to do. So we look at all those different challenges to try to help them get back to their independence. Here at Baptist Health Hardin, it is awesome that we are in the same building as our oncologist and our radiation oncologist.

Our patients can go straight from their treatments directly to us. We're able to answer questions. We're able to be a very important part of their plan of care. Patients are able to stay close to home to get their treatments.

It's really an awesome thing for our patients here in the community.

Therapy During and After Cancer Treatment in Elizabethtown, KY Healthtalk Transcript

Tara Drexler, OT, Outpatient Rehab Services
Baptist Health Hardin

Tara Drexler, OT:

Therapy is important during and after cancer treatment to help patients return to the quality of life they had before the diagnosis of cancer. They will need therapy to help them build their strength and endurance and to prevent them from developing lymphedema.

Almost any cancer diagnosis would benefit from therapy during and after the treatment. The intervention might be they need strengthening; they might need endurance training. They might benefit from speech therapy, if their swallowing was affected or if they need speech training after their treatment. Any cancer diagnosis would benefit from therapy. [For] patients who come to therapy, some of the challenges they might experience are a diagnosis of lymphedema, which is swelling and accumulation of fluid in an extremity that can impact their independence. It can be debilitating for the patient.

Patients also will experience a decrease in endurance because of different treatment options they have and a decrease in their strength. All those challenges together will cause a patient to feel like they're less independent in their activities of daily living. We also are looking to get them back into whatever work they love to do. We look at the different challenges to try to help them get back to their independence.

Here at Baptist Health Hardin, it is awesome that we are in the same building as our oncologists and our radiation oncologists. Our patients can go straight from their treatments directly to us. We're able to answer questions. We're able to be a very important part of their plan of care. Patients are able to stay close to home to get their treatments. It's really an awesome thing for our patients here in the community.