My Notebook: An Essential Resource for Recently Diagnosed Cancer Patients
Most newly diagnosed cancer patients were told at some point in the chaotic weeks after diagnosis that they should get a three-ring notebook binder to keep all the information they are juggling in one place, to help with the overwhelming and often impersonal medical maze faced by a newly diagnosed cancer patient. Well, most of the people I spoke to said that it was a great idea, but they were dealing with too much just then to take time to create their notebook. So, here it is, and each of you can personalize and customize it for your own use. Take what you need and leave the rest.
It offers only enough basics about cancer and treatment options to allow you to actively participate in determining what treatments are best for you. It has been shown that being fully engaged in the process of choosing the best treatment options improves your chances to beat this disease and return to a healthy normal life. This notebook helps you do this.
And it does more than that: It can minimize the stress of dealing with the day-to-day information overload and can lessen the frustrations of medical care delivery and endless insurance claim paper chases. In short, it helps allow you to focus on getting well.
My Notebook has four sections:
Getting Control
This section has four steps to follow, in answer to a new patient’s most demanding question: What do I do now? It includes detailed lists of questions to ask the diagnosing doctor, the surgeon, and the oncologist.
Getting the Facts
This is a quick cram course in cancer diseases and treatments. It is not specific to each cancer disease, but offers enough of an explanation for the patient to use so that he or she and a family member or loved one can better understand what the doctors are telling them.
Getting Treatment
This section has simplified information on standard vs. clinical trial treatments, aggressive vs. conservative treatments, and alternative or complementary treatments vs. conventional treatment. It serves to inform the discussion with the doctors, so that the patient can more fully participate in choosing the best treatment or treatments.
Getting Organized
This final section is a tool to organize and keep handy important information − physician and lab and treatment facility contacts, test results, insurance information, etc. − to make the medical paper chase less daunting and allow the patient and their family to deal with the most important goal of survivorship.
My Journal differs from most other resources on the internet, in that it also supports the needs of the new patient’s family and loved ones. This is important, because “when someone gets cancer, everyone who loves them does, too.”
If you need help printing the “My Notebook” PDF, follow the “Print a PDF” instructions here or follow the video tutorial here. For instructions on assembling “My Notebook”, click here.