The Strange New World of Oncology

I came into the field of oncology nutrition somewhat unwillingly, as I would guess you have! 

A fellowship at UW during my masters led me to an outpatient pediatric nutrition specialty, which I was hired to cover at the University in 1988. But a merger with Childrens’ Hospital in 1990, along  with the usual messy politics, ended up with the non-nursing staff staying at the University.

My only adult nutrition experience had been teaching diabetic and low sodium diets to adults in hospital rooms, usually just prior to their discharge. Most of whom had their arms crossed, and many threw the information in the trash as they left. Inpatients are not teaching candidates, and I found it entirely unrewarding.

Wanting to work in an area where nutrition was valued, I agreed to join the team starting a new bone marrow transplant program for cancer patients, and I went from being quite good at what I did, to going home at night distressed and frustrated by the new language and issues that were thrown at me, and feeling I wasn’t competent. My husband reassured me daily, “all they want is for you to be trainable, Colleen”.

You are now in that new world, with new language and my goal is to help you understand a couple new ideas and make it simple enough for you to make choices easily. My pediatric background (and three adult kids who were once teenagers), tells me that unless you know why this is important to you, and not just your partner, you won’t buy into it. In fact, I see a lot of crossed arms in your future. So, I am telling your partner, that it is NOT their job to do anything but provide a supportive environment. YOU are the only one who controls what you eat. Most of us have strong memories of being forced to eat something we didn’t want to, and I would bet many of you still won’t eat that food. The feelings of loss of control pushes the rebellion button in all of us.

We also are easily overwhelmed when there seems to be too many complicated changes to make. I like to keep it at one change around nutrition, and one around exercise at a time. Once you feel comfortable with a change, you can clean up the details in another area.

I know you are all trainable, and I know that cancer is a wake-up call for many people, one that makes them much more interested in nutrition.  And that works for me J