How do I get a palliative care team involved in my care?

How do I get a palliative care team involved in my care? Well, one of the challenges as a patient or a caregiver or family member is that you may be up against a bit of an uphill battle depending on who your local hematologist oncologist is and what your cancer care team looks like. And what I mean by that is if you're being managed by some folks who actually don't really yet understand what specialist palliative care is and that it can be very impactful as something you add early on to cancer treatment, they may be very confused when you bring it up and ask about it. So it's important to know a little bit about what the benefits may be and you have to be prepared actually to educate your cancer care team about palliative care because many of them will think that you're asking about hospice care and end of life care and they'll look at you like you have two heads and they'll think, well, you're not ready for that. But really, you know, now that we've talked a bit about this, that really it's an extra layer of support to help you even through active treatment, maybe even curative intent treatment. So one way that I often recommend that patients and families bring this up is to say, you know, I've read a lot about palliative care and I realize that it can be very helpful in helping patients and families with symptoms and quality of life issues while they're getting treatment. If we add it to what you and I are already doing here as the in our partnership as as patient and clinician around my cancer care, could I ask you to refer me to a palliative care specialist to provide an extra layer of support for me and my family as we're going through this journey together. And when you couch it in those terms, even if that person doesn't really know or they didn't have that understanding, they're not going to feel dumb. They're not going to feel stupid about it. You've explained what you're hoping for in asking for that referral, and they'll be much more likely to say, oh, of course, that sounds like a really great idea. I'm happy to send you.