Bispecific Antibody Therapy Support | Care Team Members and Resources
Bispecific Antibody Therapy Support | Care Team Members and Resources from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
What should myeloma patients know about bispecific antibody therapy support? Nurse practitioner Alexandra Distaso from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discusses care team members and support resources for bispecific antibody therapy patients and care partners.
Alexandra Distaso, MSN, FNP-BC is on the Multiple Myeloma Nursing Team at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
See More from The Care Partner Toolkit: Bispecific Antibodies
Related Resources:
How Can Bispecific Antibody Therapy Care Partners Be Proactive? |
What Is the Role of a Care Partner in Bispecific Antibody Therapy? |
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Transcript:
Katherine:
Besides yourself, what other staff members can care partners turn to for support?
Alexandra:
So, at our office, we have an amazing group of triage nurses who are available Monday to Friday all during office hours. We have after-hours. If your patient or family member spikes a fever and you’re worried they just don’t look good, there’s always a doctor on 24/7 that you can page to kinda ask for advice and see what to do from there. And again, we have infusion nurses who are giving these injections every day.
And they are wonderful resources on what you might feel later in the day, what that site might look like, side effects that might pop up. So, really, anyone wants to be there to answer questions to make it easier for the patient or the family.
Katherine:
Are there social workers or psychologists on the team as well?
Alexandra:
Yes. We have an amazing group of social workers at Dana-Farber. And one thing that I really like about the way our program is run is that we have a social worker who is dedicated specifically to myeloma. So, they’re very familiar with these medications and the hospitalization requirements, which can be extremely tough. And so having resources and just someone to talk to, both through social work and our psychosocial oncology department, is also a wonderful resource to have.
Katherine:
What about online resources? Do you have any recommendations?
Alexandra:
So, I think that the IMF, the International Myeloma Foundation, and the NCI, have amazing resources for patients.
Actually, the IMF has an entire caregiver support page with kind of caregiver self-help, and ways that you can care for the patient. Care for the caregiver, and care for the patient. I think the MMRF has wonderful resources, and they also have a lot of online forum videos about bispecific antibodies and the different treatments for myeloma that are available if you want to learn more. And then same thing with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Excellent resources online.
