How to Assemble Your Chemo Squad + Downloadable Template
Me with two of my Chemo Squad members at a chemotherapy appointment
During cancer treatment, some people may be okay with going to their chemotherapy appointments alone, but others might find that lonely. Even though I wound up sleeping (Benadryl naps: IYKYK) or scrolling on social media during much of my chemo appointments, I really liked having company.
For my first chemotherapy appointment, one of my best friends came with me. I figured people would only want to come once and I’d have to line up another friend every week. But after joining me at my first appointment, my friend said, “That was great! See you again next week!” She actually liked coming to chemo with me! And I wound up discovering that all my friends felt that way and were happy to join me on a regular basis.
One day early on in treatment I was sitting in Starbucks thinking about who to ask to come to chemo with me next, when I had an inspiration: “I’ll make a spreadsheet!” I thought. “I’ll have a SQUAD!”
Rather than do the administrative work to line up friends to join me at every appointment, I made a Google spreadsheet — and this is the key: I made it shareable!
I divided each approximately 4- to 6-hour appointment into two or three 2-hour shifts on my spreadsheet, and then sent the document link to everyone who’d said they’d come to chemo with me and asked them to sign up for shifts.
Every shift got filled.
This sign-up process took all that weekly work and coordination off my plate. My Chemo Squad members wound up getting to know each other during the shift crossover times, and I think they might have even been in touch with each other if a conflict came up and they needed someone else to cover their shift, rather than involving me with that burden.
And speaking of burdens, one of the biggest benefits of my spreadsheet method was that it spread out the caregiver burden (which, having been a caregiver, I know can be very intense and draining). Rather than one person having the responsibility of coming to every chemo appointment with me and staying for the entire time, people took turns and shared the responsibility. So for each person, the commitment became relatively minimal and very manageable — and even enjoyable.
Each Squad member usually took the same shift each week: My friend who lived a few blocks from me typically walked with me to the infusion center to do the 8am shift for two hours, and then headed into the city for work. My friend with two young kids took the 10am shift after getting her kids off to school. And a friend who lived close to the infusion center often took the last shift, which I sometimes had to cancel last minute when chemo finished up early, because she hardly had any distance to travel to get there so last-minute cancellations were not an inconvenience for her. On some weeks, I had special guests take shifts, like my high school best friend, and a guy I knew from my going-out-to-see-live-music days in New York City 15 years earlier. Not only did my Chemo Squad spread out the caregiver burden and keep me company, it also built a community 💞
If you’d like to use my Chemo Squad Spreadsheet method, too, I’ve created a template of the Google Sheet I used. The template isn’t editable, so you’ll have to click on the link below and then make a copy of this document. Then, type in the dates and times of your Chemo Shifts, make sure your spreadsheet is editable for other invited users, and share it with the friends and family members you want to join you at your appointments so they can sign up for shifts.
💻 GET MY CHEMO SQUAD SPREADSHEET TEMPLATE HERE
Some Additional Considerations
1) Check with the staff. I underwent cancer treatment before COVID. While most hospitals seem to allow guests and caregivers to join patients for their appointments again, be sure to check with the staff at your infusion center to confirm any visitor policies. Also, ask if your Squad members need to be added to a list at the front desk or anything like that to be allowed to enter the infusion center if they don’t arrive at the same time as you.
2) Don’t be afraid to set rules and boundaries to protect your health. Because I was immunocompromised during chemo, I told my Chemo Squad members to let me know if they or anyone in their household was sick or coming down with something at any time — and if so, to cancel their shift until they were better. Similarly, it’s okay to require your Squad members to wear masks when they visit; only allow people who are up to date on certain vaccines, like the most recent COVID booster or flu shot, for example, to join you; or ask people who’ve been exposed to COVID to take a COVID test and get a negative result before coming to your appointment. Your health is the most important thing, and you need to protect it.
3) Only invite people you feel comfortable with to join you at chemo. This doesn’t mean that they have to be close friends or you even need to know them very well. One of my main Chemo Squad members was another regular at a neighborhood coffee shop I frequented, and we didn’t even know each other’s last names until the first chemo appointment of mine that she came to! What I mean by this is that you don’t want to have someone there who you feel you need to be “on” around. I wanted to feel comfortable napping when I needed to or spacing out and scrolling on social media when I wanted to, or just sitting in silence, and not feel like I needed to make conversation with or entertain the people who joined me at chemo.
Another example: When I first arrived at my chemotherapy appointments, my chemo nurse would ask me about any side effects I’d experienced that week, and this was when I talked a lot about gastrointestinal distress. So there was an especially high bar for the person who took the first shift: I had to feel comfortable discussing my diarrhea and constipation in front of them! This is why when an old crush said he could come to the 8am shift sometime, I said, “Uh, no thanks.”
4) Have a contingency plan. Be sure to have a system in place for communication with each other around cancellations — both if a Squad member needs to cancel a shift, and if one of your appointments gets rescheduled or ends early so you need to cancel someone’s time slot.
Download my Chemo Squad Spreadsheet Template here to assemble your own Chemo Squad!
For more of my favorite chemo tips, read the other blog posts in my Chemo Tips series here:
