Hello brainstorker

I can't answer questions about the US system but I too was new to hospitals etc when I started out.

An oncology nurse suggested that I keep a personal cancer journal and I have found it a wonderful companion. I recorded what doctors said, what drugs I took and how I reacted to them plus other medical procedures and how I felt about them. I wrote in it every day during radiation, just a few words about how I was and how many treatments I had to go. I still add to it now and then. Doctors like it because you can tell them exactly when you had a drug, symptom or procedure.

You are in my thoughts, love and light from Helen