Download What to Expect When Treatment Begins

What to Expect When Treatment Begins
Recorded on: November 23, 2013
Alice Lynn
Advanced Nurse Practitioner
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of MD Anderson Cancer Center, its
medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own
doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.
Andrew Schorr:
Okay, Alice, some questions for you. So here we are. We’re going through treatment, and we have
questions, you know, filled with questions. So do you encourage that? And how can we do that so
we’re going to have follow-up visits, we’re going to be monitored, is it working, I feel this, should I
be feeling this, I’m less tired, more tired. I developed this rash. So questions, people can call you
anytime or you make a list. What’s the effective way to be monitored as we’re going through
treatment?
Alice:
So after Dr. Keating decides the treatment, we usually go back in and try to explain the most
common side effects of the regimen that the patient will be getting, the medications, the
prophylaxis that they need to take with the medications, when to take it, take it with food, without
food and also considering their other medications. And I try to stay in there and answer.
It’s overwhelming at first, because sometimes they don’t expect to start treatment. So we try to let
them ask as many questions as they can at that time and write them down, encourage them to
write them down. Because they won’t remember when we’re giving them so many instructions, go
here, go there, you know, making reservations here and there and they can always, if they have
my card, they can call me or email me and try to answer all their questions, maybe not right then,
but as questions come up.
Andrew Schorr:
Can you tell people what to expect, what to expect or what would be worrisome?
Alice:
Yes, we do tell them fevers, the expectations of getting rituximab (Rituxan), that they may get
their fevers and chills during the treatment.
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of MD Anderson Cancer Center, its
medical staff or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own
doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.
© 2014 MD Anderson Cancer Center
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