It's me again. The chick with too many questions. Since they are usually seperate topics, I'll start new ones to see if anyone has advice on how to handle them. Since I'm at the start of my journey, and haven't had too many pleasant experiences with medical and hospitalization (outside of childbirth)

What worries me most is that the cancer center I have been referred to is 60 miles away from my home. Honestly, I'm more comfortable at home in my own bed than anywhere else, this includes pleasant journeys like vacations (I always miss my nest)

My main doctor, so far I only spent maybe 30 to 40 minutes with him and probably need to put my entire trust in his decisions, isn't going to have time to explain to me all the logistics. He tends to get impatient, which is why I'm glad my spouse has been with me so far, so I can say "um..dearie, did I handle myself well in there?"

Granted the last person a person would want to tick off is the doctor, so I'm trying to figure out where on the medical staff I need to address the concerns that I really can't waste the honorable doctor's time with. The cancer center that I was referred to is a large place, but it's 60 miles away from my home. Rush hour traffic through a major hub like Denver is awful. Since this is a team approach type of environment, and I haven't yet met everyone on the "team" Does one just request to see a hospital social worker to see if there are easier ways for people who live some sort of distance away from the center.

If I have to spend three hours on the road (people have already convinced me if I'm on all sorts of meds I won't be able to do this myself) on a daily basis, do people usually rent a hotel room for the number of weeks duration that you need for chemo, radiation and the like? I don't exactly know what the function of a hospital social worker is, but I'm thinking that may be the person to address concerns like logistics. I know I gotta weigh the pros and the cons of either sleeping in my own bed (enduring the travel) or renting a room somewhere that I might be ill at ease and not quite well enough to communicate.

Also I'm wondering if a Social Worker is the person you need to ask to get the flow chart of which team member to address the questions to... such as meds, reactions, do I go to the nearest local hospital if I'm in distress at home... blah blah blah blah.

Guess what I'm asking here is (and I know I'm asking many questions) since every hospital and case is different, do the hospital social workers act sort of as a patient advocate or tour director? I don't want to be chapping any hides and getting my medical staff angry at me for wasting their time with the wrong questions to the wrong people.

I'm new this whole road show. I need a map, ya know