TIPS video series

Episode # 108
Uploaded: August 30, 2012
Running Time: 2:40

CROWN: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

NIH research participants have unique needs. To help support patients and their caregivers, the transplant consortium has started a program called TIPS, which stands for "transplant information program and support." TIPS offers regular seminars at the Clinical Center on a variety of topics such as cancer treatment and stem cell transplant-related insomnia, anxiety, and fatigue. Megan Mikula, a clinical research nurse, recently offered a talk on cancer-related fatigue.

MIKULA: A lot of patients when they describe their fatigue they might say their get-up-and-go, got up and went. People say they feel tired, weak, exhausted...many, many different words to describe their fatigue, but I'd hesitate (for) you to say that you're lazy. It's definitely not a choice.

CROWN: Mikula said there are many reasons why patients who have undergone cancer treatment or a stem cell transplant are experiencing fatigue, including their medications, their diet, level of activity, or even a possible infection. To help manage the fatigue, she suggests keeping a diary.

MIKULA: You can keep a diary of your fatigue. Make daily entries and rate you're fatigue. You've probably heard a nurse ask you to rate your pain 0-10, with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst. You can do the same thing (with fatigue). On your best days you might have 0 for your fatigue, and on your worst days it might be a 10. I also want you think about not just rating it once a day but rate it multiple times through the day. You will begin to see a pattern.

CROWN: Once you know when you have the most amount of energy during the day, you can use that time to take care of activities that may boost your strength, such as exercise, eating, and enjoying leisure activities. When you are tired, conserve energy by relaxing and taking short naps.

MIKULA: This is a good time to delegate other tasks to friends and family. When you delegate, you want to be specific. Letting other people help you empowers them.

CROWN: More TIPS videos are available online. Visit clinicalcenter.nih.gov/wecare.

From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Ellen Crown, at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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