[Music] The care treatment and comfort
of those living with cancer are critical
to patient outcome.
For those who must rely
on infusion there are infusion options that
you may not be aware of.
Which provide greater
comfort, freedom and self reliability.
We traveled to New Hampshire to see
the technology and service in action
and meet those on the front line.
My name is Jerry Lefebvre.
I'm currently 51 years old
I live in Merrimack New Hampshire and I
work in retail.
Back in March I found out
that I had cancer due to emergency room
visit.
I was put in a position where I
needed to have a colonoscopy to find out
what was going on and during that colonoscopy they
found a malignant growth they weren't
uncomfortable with.
They took a sample of
it and it came back as carcinogenic and
they decided that point that they should
remove the tumor.
And they took about a
third of my colon out and sent that off
to the lab and came back as cancerous
and as a follow-up they decided that
chemo would be my best chances of it not
reoccurring within the next five or six
years.
It changed my life rather
dramatically finding out when it comes
to colon cancer there's really only one
specific treatment.
And they give me a
dose at the cancer treatment center.
Instead of giving it to me all at once,
they split the dose.
I get half of it
right away, the other half I get in the
pump.
The pump slowly diffuses it into me
through a port over a forty six hour
period.
Which allows me to live a more
normal life.
Because it's not all at once.
so it affects the the the nausea,
anything that might come along with it.
is more manageable.
Daily life made easier
thanks to technology and services that
bring the gold standard of care right
into a patient's home.
Most patients
think of chemotherapy as treatment
inside the office.
They go to a Cancer
Center, they sit down in a chair they're
hooked up.
You know their chemo is
usually infused through their port.
They sit for multiple hours in the
office getting infusion.
The nice part about MP
system and what people may not be aware
is, that you can actually go home with
your chemotherapy.
You can be treated at
home.
Your clinic will hook you up
to your pump and you're discharged home.
You spend a day or two at home and then
come back for a disconnect in your
clinic and now you get to spend most
your time at home.
Walking in there knowing you're gonna
have a full day of sitting there
hanging out, I try to plan ahead and make
sure that I bring entertainment with me.
I bring a good book.
I bring my headphones and listen to some
music and if you can bring a friend.
It goes by a
lot faster if you got somebody to talk
to.
And fortunately for me, my sister
chose to spend her summer sitting in
that chair with me.
You know patients that
are on chemotherapy, they're immunocompromised.
So their immune
systems down.
You know to reduce the
risk of any kind of infection or germs
by going in and out of hospitals, it's a
great benefit of home infusion.
For the most part when I go in, the
during the course of the that day, I feel
unaffected by it.
Until the very end.
When they give me
that one last drug.
As they're giving it
to me, I can feel a heaviness throughout
my body rather quickly and then a drain
of energy but you bounce back rather
quickly because it's not a huge dose and
then you go home with the pump and it's
it's a it slows you down but it doesn't
stop you.
You're still able to get out
and do things.
I mean I'm on my
motorcycle all the time.
I go for walks.
I work full time life goes on.
It doesn't
have to stop you.
InuSystems works
with hospitals, oncology clinics, home
infusion providers and surgery centers
nationwide, making sure patients like
Gerry are set up for at-home success.
Patients are often scared that something's going to go wrong
with the pump.
What if it malfunctions?
Who am I going to call?
What happens if it's
alarming in the middle of the night?
So that's where infuSytems
comes in.
We have a group of nurses, we have
eight nurses from around the country
who love what they do, they're great at
what they do.
They answer the patient's call so
it's just a 24/7 support line that the patients
can call just to know someone's there.
That someone can help them through
the process if there's anything
that's going wrong.
Fortunately I've never had to use
the help line but knowing that it's
there and there's somebody on the other
end of that phone at any time 24/7 is a
definite peace of mind.
The great thing
about InfuSystem, we provide everything to
the clinic.
This is a standard of care in,
for colorectal cancers or
gastrointestinal cancers.
The best reason
to use InfuSystem, you know for the
clinic I would say would be cost.
We can provide, in certain scenarios,
the pumps infusion and supplies at no cost
to the facility.
It's a win-win for everybody.
The patients get what they need from
their clinic and the clinic gets what
they need from InfuSystem.
I get to
get my chemo on the run and that makes
my life a whole lot easier.
A lot more
fun.
Thanks to his outstanding care from
his oncology team and from infuSystem,
Jerry's six-month therapy
included more time at home and is nearly
completed but he's ready to help those
whose journey is just beginning.
Sitting in that chair all day by yourself, it's probably the
loneliest you'll ever be so.
It's made me decide
that when I'm done with my treatment I'm
gonna go in and meet some some new
friends and spend a day off with them.
So they're not sitting that chair
by themselves.
And then if you have the time,
find a treatment center.
Go and sit with
somebody.
Make them feel not alone.
That's the best thing you can do for
anybody in treatment.
What great advice.
Thank You Jerry for
sharing your personal story and for more
information go to InfuSytem.com or
go to our website, the balancingact.com
Coming up next.
When it comes to helping
defend against cancer, foods that are
rich in antioxidants are just what the
doctor ordered.
Stay with us [Music]