Reflecting on my life with Multiple Myeloma
This morning I woke up, grabbed my camera and headed out to take a self-portrait for World Cancer Day. I sat and reflected on my life with Multiple Myeloma and how I have used social media to educate and provide awareness about my rare disease through photos, audio, video, and text.
I have used Soundcloud to share a recording in which I discuss how social media can be used by people living with cancer to engage and inform others. These suggestions may also be useful for caregivers. Basically any tool can be used to engage an audience about cancer (e.g. Pinterest, Snapchat, or Vine). Don’t just restrict engagement toFacebook or Twitter.
Cancer is a challenging disease, the side effects can be quite brutal. With Multiple Myeloma, you can get bone lesions, have chronic fatigue, or deal with severe pain. I can speak from personal experience about how cancer has affected my cognitive abilities. If you have a friend with cancer, visit them this month. Bring a smile to their face. Brighten their day.
Just to give a recap, I’m living with a rare blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma. From February to November 2013, I was on my 4th chemo treatment called Velcade, where I had weekly in-hospital injections, in addition to a variety of other pills taken to supplement my chemo treatment. You can read the background on my diagnosis and previous treatments on an earlier blogpost. You can also follow me on twitter.
You can also view the complete set of photos related to my last treatment here.
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