Trigger Warning: This episode discusses cancer, cancer treatment, cancer relapse, mental health, cancer during pregnancy and living with late effects of treatment.
Description: In this powerful episode, Naman Julka-Anderson and Jo McNamara sit down with Meera Shah. Meera trained as a dentist and following a range of roles as a junior, focused on the treatment of patients with special needs.
Whilst expecting her first child she noticed increasing pain in her chest, back and shoulders, with weakness of the upper body over time. When her son was 6 months old, she was diagnosed with a solitary bone plasmacytoma of the sternum. This was treated with radiotherapy. Due to the large tumour size, recovery was slow and Meera took many years to regain some upper body strength. She had to leave her role in clinical dentistry and go back to the drawing board. In 2018, Meera progressed to multiple myeloma, with multiple tumours in both femori and tibia. This was treated in 2019 with chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant. She has since been on maintenance chemotherapy. There was a discussion of potential radiotherapy to both knees, but fortunately wasn’t required in the end.
Unable to return to clinical practice, Meera completed her Diploma in Healthcare Professions Education. She now works part time in postgraduate dental education at NHSE and also delivers freelance education in the cancer space. Her primary focus is to educate healthcare professionals on the impact of living with a chronic condition/incurable cancer, not just on patients, but to the whole family, especially children. Her main message is to ensure patients are given personalised care based on their own personal needs. She also volunteers for Shine Cancer Support, supporting their network for young adults from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, and is a trustee for National Voices.
This episode is a deep dive into Meera’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatments, her family life and how things could have been improved for her care.
Episode 158: part of the Living with and beyond cancer series(part 47).
CPD Reflection Points:
- read about the symptoms of Multiple Myeloma: https://bloodcancer.org.uk/understanding-blood-cancer/myeloma/symptoms-diagnosis/myeloma-symptoms/.
- reflect on Meera’s experience of diagnosis, treatment and now living with multiple myeloma.
- consider how you build a rapport with your patients and what you could do to improve your practice.
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Links from the Episode:
- BBC News article 'People are blamed if they have cancer': https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg67k35z757o
- What does time mean to us now?:
- https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bHmlccOMzCxXdFtmq0xDf
- Myeloma UK radiotherapy: https://www.myeloma.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Myeloma-UK-Radiotherapy-Infosheet.pdf
- Mummy’s Star Charity: https://www.mummysstar.org/
- Myeloma UK: https://www.myeloma.org.uk/understanding-myeloma/related-conditions/solitary-plasmacytoma/
- Blood Cancer UK charity: https://bloodcancer.org.uk/
- Shine Cancer Support: https://shinecancersupport.org/
- National Voices: https://www.nationalvoices.org.uk/
- Early medical retirement due to ill health – what to do?: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/retirement/pensions/guides/early-medical-retirement-due-to-ill-health-what-to-do/
- Telling your children you have cancer: https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/diagnosis/talking-about-cancer/talking-to-children-and-teenagers
Research links from the Episode:
- Imaging in myeloma: a Royal College of Radiologists national survey of current imaging practice: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009926021002774
- Multiple Myeloma and genetic testing: https://www.rcpath.org/profession/publications/annual-reports/annual-report-2021-2022/multiple-myeloma-entering-a-new-era-of-genetics.html
- New paradigm for radiation in multiple myeloma: lower yet effective dose to avoid radiation toxicity: https://haematologica.org/article/view/9958
- Towards individualized radiation therapy in multiple myeloma:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7327648/
- Radiation Therapy (RT) in a New Era of Multiple Myeloma (MM) Therapy: Trends of Engagement and Radiologic, Biochemical, and Cytogenetic Correlates of Outcomes and Response: https://www.redjournal.org/article/S0360-3016(24)02121-7/fulltext
Rad Chat Links:
Credits: Music and jingle credits: Dr. Ben Potts and Adam Cooke.