Hey, all. Thanks for reading my blog. I am excited to join the International Myeloma Foundation’s (IMF) “Support Group Leaders (SGL) go to ASH” program and share updates from the meeting. I have lost track of how many years I have been attending with the IMF, but it has been more than 9 years, based on my Twitter anniversary.
The 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA from December 11 – 14, 2021, offering virtual attendance. The SGLs will attend virtually to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure. I’m very pleased with this approach, as I’m a big fan of safety, and “live tweeting” is easier from my desktop rather than my laptop.
We have all experienced a lot of changes in the past two years, as we live “through” a pandemic, or more accurately, live “within” a pandemic.
For some, you may have received your multiple myeloma diagnosis during this time, adding to the uncertainty of the times. Others may have had to delay or interrupt treatment as a result of the medical shortages and concern for infection.
For myself, it helped bring some things into focus. For the first 30 years of my career as an oncology nurse at Mayo Clinic-Rochester, I loved working in the area of blood and marrow transplant (BMT), working with all transplant-indicated hematologic disorders.
Multiple myeloma is the number one indication for autologous stem cell transplant, hence, my 15-year focus on this disease as a member of the IMF’s Nurse Leadership Board (NLB). Through all these years, I embraced the Mayo philosophy: “The needs of the patient come first”.
My volunteer activities as an SGL and working with the amazing members of the IMF NLB have added focus to patient empowerment through education.
In 2021, as I entered my 31st year as an oncology nurse, I made the transition from BMT Nurse Coordinator to the development of a new role, as a Myeloma Nurse Navigator. The vision of this role is three-fold: to create increased awareness of clinical trial participation; to empower patients through education; and to assist providers to enhance clinical efficiency, allowing for more focused time with the patient. Talk about the perfect role to meld my passions.
I am able to focus my professional time on the dynamic specialty of multiple myeloma while having improved focus on work/life balance, AND I am able to work from home. This balance has allowed me time to learn artistic painting, which has even influenced the most recent IMF NLB Patient Education presentation as shown in the symptom management section of Advances in Myeloma Treatments: What Patients & Caregivers Need to Know.
This role transition gives me a little different focus for my #ASH21 experience. I will have less focus on transplant, and more focus on specialty aspects of an already specialty diagnosis. I want to focus on the “one-off” versions of myeloma like extra-medullary disease (EMD), plasma cell leukemia (PCL), non-secretory and high risk variants and approaches to treatment.
To that end, I will focus on updates on pipeline combinations and targeted therapies that address novel targets and refractory disease, such as iberdomide and cereblon; venetoclax and t(11;14); and non-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) targets, to name a few. Also, I will (always have) focus on supportive care in all phases of the diagnosis as this is key to living well with myeloma.
There is so much to learn from the annual ASH meeting. I look forward to sharing updates on Twitter and future blogs posted at https://www.myeloma.org/resources-support/imf-support-network/patient-blogs-ash
Follow the IMF @IMFmyeloma and SGLs on Twitter and other social media platforms for updates.
@imfsupport @imfmikemyeloma @johnde1Myeloma @jackMAiello @NorthTxMSG @LindaMyeloma @blondie1746 @MidAtlanticMSG @Daw6Jessie @Mmfamilies_IMF @JillZitzewitz
Teresa Miceli, RN BSN OCN
Myeloma Nurse Navigator
Mayo Clinic-Rochester
IMF Nurse Leadership Board
Teresa Miceli, RN BSN OCN, on Twitter: @IMFnurseMyeloma
You must be logged in to post a comment.