What is the role of a care giver during autologous stem cell transplant?

What is the role of the care partner during the transplant procedure?

So the care partner is an incredibly important part of of myeloma care in general. And the transplant procedure, in particular, the amount of involvement of the care partner during the different phases of transplant can differ, depending on if a person is having the transplant procedure in the hospital versus outside of the hospital, outside of the hospital.

I think that it is extremely important to have a care partner who is available and who is someone that the patient is very comfortable, sharing all of the details about how they're feeling with. Some people are really very, very private, even with people that they've selected to be their care partner. And I think it's important that people understand that this is a situation where privacy remains important. But sometimes we have to talk about what's going on in the bathroom and what's going on in the toilet and being very open with each other.

So on the outpatient side, I think having a care partner available all the time is is really very, very important, particularly for driving, particularly to help make phone calls if someone's condition changes and they're not feeling well and they may not be able to clearly express what what they've noticed about their symptoms.

In the hospital, I think it's a little bit different. You have the luxury of having extremely well trained nursing staff and other medical professionals who have their eyes on the patient in the hospital setting. That being said, some patients and their caregivers really feel more comfortable remaining in the hospital and if that's what they want to do and if that fits with what the hospital's rules allow, I think that's absolutely fine to do.

Many people, though, don't have the luxury of being able to take as much time off from work as they might want to, and the period of time when the patient is in the hospital can be a time when the care partner is still able to keep their job, continue to do some of their regular day to day stuff, and then also to help prepare for that patient returning to the home setting.

Are you required to have a care partner if your transplant is as an outpatient?

If you don't have a caregiver, you have to be in the hospital. The key is to have a caregiver. And we give classes education. So the caregiver has to be that, you know, helping the patient through that, particularly the week of low count checking temperature. Make sure that the medications are given, you know, around the clock and then calling us if there is a problem, helping with grocery. The patient we discourage the patient from going anywhere. Right. So you go from the apartment to clinic, and so you need a caregiver for everything else. Absolutely. So it's a big job that that we do a lot of education classes for the caregiver.

What is the role of a care partner once the patient returns home?

I would say for the first 30 days we normally advise the patient to have that 24 hour caregiver. It doesn't need to be one person, right? It could be multiple people. They don't necessarily need to have any medical knowledge or training which can be friends, family members. Just to be an adult, ideally someone who knows how to drive in case they need to drive a patient back to the hospital or something like that.

But yeah, for the first 30 days, I think it will be ideal to have, you know, someone. Most patients, after the first three weeks or so, they are doing remarkably well, right? They are just tired. But, you know, like, we are never, able to predict how someone is going to do the transplant, right? The rule of thumb is like, most people is going to do well, but there are complications down the road that will require you still have a caregiver. It is better to plan, at least for the first 30 days, to have someone around with you to help you, let's say, especially if you live completely alone, there is nobody else at home, right?

Because one thing is, like caregiver, they can go for a couple of hours, to do either, like some chores around the house or can or need to work for four hours or so and then coming back. Right. The other one is like not having anybody and living alone. So then for those patients, especially, probably need to be able to secure a 30 day caregiver.