The idiom “bring it home” has been defined as, “to make something more clearly understood,” “to get to the heart of the matter,” to make perfectly clear,” “to return home with a gift for someone,” “to make someone understand much more clearly than they did before,” “to cause someone to realize something,” and so on. I see it as my responsibility as a SGL (Support Group Leader) who attended ASH 2016 to have our support group benefit from the IMF’s efforts to increase our knowledge of multiple myeloma.
This is my challenge upon returning home and trying to synthesize all the information that was presented. Topics included everything from diagnosis to new drugs and the novel ways in which to use them. Other concepts that were presented included the evaluation of minimal residual disease (MRD), and the methods of flow cytometry and genetic sequencing used to detect minimal residual disease (proliferating and circulating myeloma cells). Researchers from around the world weighed in on the initial and longer term treatments for high risk patients with chromosomal abnormalities and high risk smoldering disease.
Support Group Leaders convene at the ASH annual meeting.
The ability to network and interact with fellow SGLs from across the country was a remarkable experience. The Brian D. Novis Grant Awards presented by Dr. Robert Kyle to investigators from the US and Europe as well as talks by myeloma patients through Living Well with Myeloma were motivating events that excited me as a SGL. So I bring it home!
My theme song now is “Bring it on Home”, by Sam Cook. Check it out!
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