Friday, August 6, 2010

Eavesdropping in the Treatment Room

On Wednesday, I sat next to a guy in his sixties, and his wife.  The guy was getting chemo. They smiled and said hello but did not seem to want to talk.

At some point, his nurse came over and started patient education. This was the first time the guy was getting chemo.  It is always interesting to listen in on patient education. One thing is that I am surprised at how much I know, and another thing is that I might pick up something new.  Every chemo is different and has different things to watch out for.

Whatever this guy is getting, he has to come back the next day for a Neulasta shot. So right at the end, the nurse is standing there with her palm pressed to her forehead, saying, "I just heard about something that can help with Neulasta bone paine, it's over the counter and you take it for something else, but for the life of me..."

So I piped up, "Claritin and Aleve?"  On Monday morning, my favorite port-accessing nurse had told me about how her doctor recently presented a paper on how people who took Aleve and Claritin experienced significantly less bone pain after the Neulasta shot.

"Yes! Claritin! Thanks!"

So, this was one time when butting in was a good thing!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From Doane:

YAY!! to those that pay attention to what, at the time, seem useless information, so they can pass it along to those that may need it.