Your First Visit

Every young transplant patient at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is cared for by a personal pediatric team that includes a pediatric attending doctor, a primary pediatric doctor (who may be either a fellow or a physician’s assistant), a team nurse, a social worker, and a child life specialist.

Your child’s primary doctor will handle most of your child’s medical care, under the supervision and direction of the attending physician, who will be either Dr. Jean Sanders, director of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at SCCA, or one of several other faculty members on the pediatric transplant team.

During your child’s first visit to SCCA, you will meet your child’s primary doctor and your team nurse. The nurse will check your child’s temperature, blood pressure, and pulse, draw blood, and take a short medical history. Your nurse will also give you a tour of the transplant clinic, which is on the sixth floor of the SCCA clinic.

Your child’s primary doctor will then complete a health history and examine your child. You will be given consent forms at this time so that you have time to review them before you sit down with your child’s medical team for the arrival conference.

You will be given a copy of SCCA’s “Patient & Caregiver Resource Manual.”

The arrival conference
Next, you will sit down for a conference with your child’s attending physician and other members of your child's team to discuss a treatment plan.

This conference is usually scheduled for the second day of your visit. You may bring members of your family, including the donor, to this meeting. During the conference, your child’s doctor will explain the transplant process and discuss the treatment planned for your child, including the risks and benefits.

Your child’s attending physician will answer any questions that you may have about the treatment plan.  This process is called “informed consent.” Once you feel that you understand the risks and benefits of the treatment planned for your child, you will be asked to sign consent forms giving us permission to treat your child.

Most parents sign the consent forms during this conference.

Your child may attend this meeting or not, depending on the child’s age. You will want to discuss this issue beforehand with your child’s doctor. “It is important for older children to attend this conference, so that they understand what will happen to them,” says Dr. Jean Sanders, director of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at SCCA. “The attending doctor will explain things to them in age-appropriate terms.”

Dr. Sanders says typically children as young as 5 attend this conference, but they need not stay for the entire time.

If your child is too young to attend, this is a good time to schedule a visit with a child life specialist, who will use the time for medical play and to get to know your child.

This appointment is followed by an evaluation for transplant.

May 2007