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The Myelofibrosis Care Team

Talk to your healthcare provider about any signs and symptoms you may be experiencing. Your healthcare provider can help refer you for the right testing and help you navigate potential treatment options. Dr. John Mascarenhas discusses some of the people who may be part of your care team below.

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The Myelofibrosis Care Team with Dr. John Mascarenhas

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Dr. John Mascarenhas, Hematologist Oncologist

DR. JOHN MASCARENHAS:
“The care team for a blood cancer like myelofibrosis will involve multiple key people, so in my mind, it really involves the medical assistants that check you in and do your vitals. And you know, that's often overlooked, I think, and underappreciated. That's the first person you meet often in a cancer center. Sometimes that is the most, that can be a very comforting person as you are brought in because it's frightening to be in a cancer center. It's frightening to be in a hematologist oncologist's office. The nurse, the nurse practitioners, they really do the bulk of the work, actually.”

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What role does a caregiver play in the work that the care team does?

DR. JOHN MASCARENHAS:
“The caregiver is actually an important part of the care team. It's not simply the medical part of it. And of course, the patient is at the center of it. The caregiver actually is extremely important because it's often the caregiver that when they come to the appointment that hears a lot of the information that might be missed by the patient, that can then provide a recap of what was said when they get home. Sometimes the caregiver is the one who takes the notes. Sometimes the caregiver is the one who's just there to listen to the patient, to make sure the patient understood what was said. Of course, caregivers are often the people that the patient relies on for stuff that is important like getting to an appointment, getting to a transfusion, helping them with certain activities that might be hard if you don't feel well. So the caregivers can play a very important role from not just a physical helping but also an emotional aspect and a care aspect of helping understand, synthesize and discuss the diagnosis and the treatment to make it less overwhelming for that one individual.”

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MMLCOCO230012 August 2023
Produced in USA.

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