[Beacon Staff]

Weekly Poll - Do You Attend Myeloma Support Group Meetings?

by Beacon Staff on Wed Oct 26, 2011 12:27 pm

This week's Myeloma Beacon “Weekly Poll” is about myeloma support group attendance.

As usual, there are a few clarifications.

First, this question is for readers who have any kind of myeloma (e.g., smoldering or symptomatic) or MGUS.

Second, we want to focus in this question on attendance by *patients* at support group meetings. Thus, if you are a family member or caregiver of a myeloma patient, please answer on behalf of the myeloma patient in your family or for whom you are the caregiver.

We will do a separate poll at a later date asking about the attendance of caregivers and family members at support group meetings.

Third, when answering the poll, please try to reflect not just how often you have gone to support group meetings in the past, but also how often you expect to go to meetings in the future.

Fourth, if you don't go to support group meetings, don't be afraid to say so. It's just as useful to have answers from people who don't go to meetings as it is to have responses from people who do.

Finally, feel free to post comments, thoughts, or feedback in the space below. They can be very useful to other readers.

[Nancy Shamanna]

Re: Weekly Poll - Do You Attend Myeloma Support Group Meetin

by Nancy Shamanna on Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:14 am

It took me more than a year after diagnosis to start to attend support group meetings. Probably it would have been beneficial to go earlier, but tiredness was definitely a factor after the SCT. Since joining, I have met some really lovely, dynamic people who, despite their health problems, get a lot done and enjoy friendship also!! The group has a regular meeting once a month, and the steering committee also meets once or twice a month. In the last year, the steering committee put on the third annual 'Walk/Run'...'Multiple miles for Myeloma'. This event was a great success and raised quite a bit for myeloma research being conducted here. We also hosted a one day 'information seminar' day with speakers on various aspects of living with multiple myeloma, last autumn. The group also has an aqua fit class running now, and has information meetings, group sharing meetings, and the very popular spring BBQ and Christmas parties. The group's name is the Southern Alberta Myeloma Patients Society. We have a website and it is open to all patients and their caregivers in our area.