August Support Meeting
What an honor for us to welcome Andy from the IMF to be our speaker this month. It is always a delight to see him for he brings with him a wealth of information and always encouragement to all.
Thank you Andy for everything, from all of us at the Pensacola MM Support Group.
We saw a slide presentation on “How to be a Good Patient”. Aimed not as you may think but quiet the opposite. This is referring to being a good patient to yourself.
The greatest and the best thing one can do for ones self is to ask questions, ask questions and ask questions. Stay informed. Keep a record of all your treatments and testing results. The IMF has made this extremely easy by logging on to their website you can download absolutely free” The Patient Manager” I have included the link for your convenience
Download the Myeloma Manager™ Personal Care Assistant™
| On Friday, September 5, 2008, at 8 PM WE’RE THROWING A NATIONWIDE PARTY |
| <!– When: 09.05.08–>Where: Your house! WHAT’S HAPPENING?
At 8:00 p.m. (in every time zone across the country), ABC, CBS and NBC will support cancer research with a commercial-free primetime hour to raise awareness about cancer and the importance of cancer research.
WHAT’S STAND UP TO CANCER? The IMF is part of Stand Up To Cancer as a recognized resource, and Susie Novis, President of the IMF, is a member of the Stand Up to Cancer Advocate Advisory Council. You can host your own party much like having a Super Bowl Party or an Oscar’s Night party, for more info please check out www.myeloma,org and events.
My trip to Africa on a Medical Missions has been postponed until April of 2009 so that is good news for me in a couple of different ways. 1 being I still need to get more of this weight off and the opportunity to get there before I go to Africa. 2nd~ it gives me more time to get the Awareness out there and raise the $120,000 for research I was wanting to raise before going on my trip. Once again none of this money comes to me, it goes directly to the IMF for Research and Awareness. Please join in my efforts in making this dream come true as I seek to move forward in bringing Awareness to Multiple Myeloma to not only this area but globally as well. A direct link to my donation site is: https://tinyurl.com/22yvxt here you can make your donations securely and directly to the IMF. Blessings to you all and please feel free to forward this on to all of your friends lets get a cure for MM so no one will ever have to hear the words you have MM without hearing, “but we have a cure”. We have news from Sylvia, she finally made it through her SCT and is recovering and looks absolutely beautiful. Cindy just returned from Little Rock and had some great news, she does not have to go back for another check up for a whole year! Woo Hoo Cindy! I knew it would be great news!!! We missed all the ones who could not make it and it was great to see everyone who made it to the August Meeting as we celebrated our 1 year anniversary with cake, coffee, soft drinks, water, meat and cheese tray and a fruit tray. I look forward to seeing everyone in Sept.
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Multiple Myeloma 07/29/08
We had our support group meeting Saturday a week ago and we had some new people show up. A Mom and her 2 girls. Her father in law had recently been dx’d and was wanting information and we were able to provide lots of educational material for her and her family to have in hand, information that is MM specific. That is what our support group is about, being Multiple Myeloma Specific. About providing support by joining together with others with your specific diagnosis, not another type of cancer which may or may not be simular. When you hear you have MM you want to hear from others that have MM.
I have rec’d e-mails from 3 different people in the last month that have recently rec’d a diagnosis of MM in this general area, NW FL. We, as a support group have been able to supply immediately information and support to them all.
We have one of our members currently in Tampa, getting her SCT and she has been keeping up posted on her journey, some of her journey has not been as hoped but the SC collection when they were actually able to do it went very well. The actual SCT is to be on Friday August 1st. Please remember Sylvia during this time. She is an awesome lady, always a smile on her face and full of HOPE.
We have another couple that the husband has MM and just completed his first SCT last month and we are hopeful to hear from them soon.
Our August meeting will bring 
Andy Lebkuecher from the International Myeloma Foundation back to see us as we celebrate our 1 year anniversary as a support group. If you are in the area please join us. Our meeting will be on August 16th @ 1:30pm at the West Fl Library on the corner of Gregory and Spring Street in Pensacola, FL.
Wonderful news, October 2008 brings to us a special week,
Multiple Myeloma Awareness Week 2008
October 20-26, 2008
Melanoma. Myeloma. To the general public, cancer is cancer. But to those of us for whom myeloma is a reality of life, awareness of this growing cancer is critical if we are to improve early diagnosis and provision of new treatment options—treatments that increase not only the percentage of patients responding well to treatment, but the length of their survival—and gain support for myeloma research around the world.
Stay tuned for future announcements about this exciting event, as well as specific information about how you can become involved! We at the ECMMSG have some exciting plans for this.
Some donations have begun to come in through my efforts in “Losing Weight Gaining Awareness” for MM. I am still at a loss of only 60 pounds, I have slacked off and must get back on track as I am only half way there to reach my goal of 120 pounds. But we are no where near the half way mark in raising the 120,000 dollars which has been my goal to raise to help with research and awareness for MM. Please help spread the word and let’s get this out there to help with the donations so we can help with the research and funding for awareness to hopefully one day soon hear, we have found a cure!
Blessings to you all!
Debi
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Multiple Myeloma Patient Family Seminar Dateline Atlanta 2008
Well the IMF came in with a whirlwind, literally! I was honored to attend the March 2008 Patient Family Seminar in Atlanta, GA .
It was incredible! If none of you have been to a Patient Family Seminar you need to seek out the next one closest to you and do what you can to get there! It is a wealth of information and the people you network with have “been there, done that” and most even have the Teeshirt, 
!
Friday evening after the seminar was over as we were heading home my nephew called and asked if we were still in Atlanta and said to be careful as the weather was really bad, like tornado bad! We had an amazing light show all the way home. Lightening all around us all the home. It was kinda cool, that is until we got home and I rec’d another called from my nephew asking if we were still up there because they had to evacuate the Westin Peachtree Plaza due to the tornado and there was damage at the Ga Dome and other buildings. We figured out the timing of all the activity and we had just passed the areas by minutes after the main activity. Of course we were on the interstate, but it is wonderful how bliss ignorance is. We had no clue what was going on only streets away.
It will take a long time for Atlanta to fully recover. The Equity building which is kinda a landmark building lost almost all their windows.
Hopefully next week I can submit some pictures and some information from the Seminar .
Blessings to you all! I appreciate all who help to bring awareness to Mulitple Myeloma. Let us not forget to do our part some we can hopefully hear they have found a cure.
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