Managing the side effects of cancer treatment

We understand the anxiety you may have around your cancer treatment and its side effects.  We have a strong focus on helping you understand your treatment care plan, your potential side effects, and how to manage them. Our goal is to also give you the additional support to manage the difficult symptoms throughout your already challenging treatment.  There are no silly questions! Never hesitate throughout your care with us to ask us. We are here for YOU.

What are common side effects of cancer treatment?

Our providers will develop a specific treatment care plan for you and your type of cancer. Before you start your treatment, you will have an educational session with one of our nurses to help you understand your treatment plan and side effects. Based on your type of chemotherapy or radiation, they will be able to tell you which of these are specific to your treatment. Also keep in mind that side effects vary from person to person, even among people receiving the same type of cancer treatment.

These are common side effects to chemotherapy:

  • Appetite loss

  • Body aches and pain

  • Constipation

  • Diarrhea

  • Fatigue

  • Hair loss

  • Hand and Foot Syndrome

  • Mouth and throat problems

  • Nausea and potentially vomiting

  • Neutropenia (low immunity)

  • Peripheral Neuropathy (nerve damage)

  • Thrombocytopenia (bruising/bleeding easily)

These are common side effects to radiation:

  • Changes in blood count levels

  • Fatigue

  • Diarrhea

  • Nausea and vomiting

  • Sexual problems

  • Skin changes like dryness, itching, blistering, or peeling

  • Thinned hair or hair loss in area treated

  • There may also be other side effects based on the specific location of your radiation. Your care team will discuss these with you.

Supporting your symptom management

If you are experiencing any of the above side effects and they are impacting your quality of life, please talk to us when you come in for your next treatment or call us at (712) 252-0088 during business hours and ask to speak to the phone nurse. If it’s after 5:00 pm or on weekends or holidays, call (712) 279-3500 and ask to speak to the on-call oncologist. Symptom management involves authentic communication, proactive evidence-based interventions, and support of your entire care team. We want to decrease your distress and improve your outcomes.

In addition to delivering personalized, best-practice cancer treatments, we offer a range of supportive care therapies to help you maintain your quality of life. These include:

Treatment support kits for chemotherapy patients

Despite the personalized education session before starting treatment, we have learned sometimes our patients are still not prepared for when and where their side effects start. Sending a new chemotherapy patient home with an initial “starter kit” containing items to help them manage for their side effects ensures they are prepared.

The chemotherapy education team has put together Treatment Support Kits that contain several items that would help manage the most common of patients’ side effects. They will provide a personalized Treatment Support Kit to each patient at the conclusion of their education session.

We are grateful to the Missouri River Historical Development (M.R.H.D.) for their grant that helped us initially launch our Treatment Support Kits from Spring 2020 - Spring 2021 ensuring patients go home prepared for possible side effects after their first chemotherapy treatment. Thank you also for a group from Leadership Siouxland who “adopted” the Treatment Support Kits as their project in 2020 and donated 500 bags towards the project.

Today, we continue to have have many individuals, families, groups, and businesses who donate $25 to “Fund a Treatment Support Kit” for a new patient as well as others who put together and donate care bags to our patients to provide comfort and support.

 
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