Living with side effects: A myeloma survivor’s full time job

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Earlier this month, I wrote a heartfelt post about the toll that ongoing chemotherapy can take on our bodies:

Novel therapy agents never intended to be used indefinitely

Allow me to share excerpts from that post to help jog your memory:

Ten years ago when these drugs were being developed, I don’t think researchers anticipated that they might be used indefinitely, for years at a time.  The plan was to use them to knock a patient’s multiple myeloma back, then stop.  If and when the myeloma became active again, hopefully that drug would work again, too.

So Phase 1 safety profiles using high doses of any of these drugs were never run longer than a year or two.  The toll taken on our bodies while staying on one or more of these drugs indefinitely are still largely unknown…

Don’t drug company researchers have an obligation to continue fine-tuning our treatment so that the drugs they develop don’t kill us before the cancer does?

But I’m stubborn.  In spite of it all, I’m going to try to feel good and keep smiling today!  Why don’t you join me?  Pat

This morning I watched a video about ways that cancer patients can help minimize their treatment related side effects.  Produced by MD Anderson Cancer Center, the program focused on the importance of sharing details about side effects with our health care team.

Non-Hodgkins lymphoma survivor, Dr. Wendy Harpham, is the featured speaker.  Although the presentation is a bit basic, watching the video hit home for me.  Yes, the chemotherapy many of us are forced to take was never designed to be used indefinitely.  And yes, doing so can be very hard on our bodies!

But that doesn’t mean that we should suffer in silence!  The program reminded me that some discomfort caused by a patient’s cancer treatment is unavoidable.  But many can be reduced or eliminated altogether if we would only speak-up.

CLICK HERE to watch the video.  And don’t forget to let me know what you think…

Feel good and keep smiling!  Pat