Empowering Myeloma Patients and Care Partners | Key Advice From a Clinician
Empowering Myeloma Patients and Care Partners | Key Advice From a Clinician from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Nurse practitioner Daniel Verina discusses strategies to empower care partners and myeloma patients, emphasizing the long-term nature of the journey and providing guidelines for returning to activity post-treatment.
Daniel Verina is a nurse practitioner at the Center of Excellence for Multiple Myeloma at Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center in New York City.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
As a provider, Daniel, how do you empower care partners and their patients who have been diagnosed with myeloma?
Daniel Verina:
I think with the cancer card or even myeloma, and I always say this, it’s truly a fact, I said it’s a journey. It’s a journey. We are together. It’s the tortoise that wins the race, not the hare when it comes to myeloma. It’s very different because many patients may have an experience that a friend had a different type of cancer and their treatment ended in a year or two. So, and myeloma currently, it is a continuous type of treatment for many years.
So, it’s getting them on board and understanding that there’s going to be wax and wanes in time. And we’re here for the long run together. I’ll ask questions continuously because every question is new to them. I might’ve heard the question 6 million times, but it’s their first time experiencing it and hearing it.
Katherine Banwell:
Yeah. Well, and following treatment, how do you counsel patients who are returning to activity and exercise? Are there any guidelines they should follow?
Daniel Verina:
Absolutely. I think it depends on how they feel, their physicality, depending on their age because myeloma really has now become a broad spectrum in age. Yes, it’s a more mature adult or older adult disease, but we’re seeing it happen in our patients in their 40s and their 50s. So, they want to return to activities. They say whatever they can tolerate. Making sure that they’re not doing heavy lifting because myeloma can affect the bone strength or cause fractures.
So, no power lifting or bungee jumping, I try to advise them not to do. But go back to what they enjoy the most. Bringing them back to close to what their normal living is, I think is one of the best ways that patients can tolerate it.
