Preparing Your Home Post Stem Cell Transplant
Myeloma Coaches Mary Sage and Rick Sturm join us to share their experiences post-stem cell transplant and how they prepared their home for their arrivals. Myeloma patients are at a high risk for infection when returning home from a stem cell transplant, so special considerations are in place when the patient comes home. After hearing from Mary and Rick about what they did, we will host a group discussion on the subject. Feel free to share your thoughts! We look forward to seeing you.
Audrey introduces the agenda of the event and featured speakers Myeloma Coaches Mary Sage and Rick Sturm.
Myeloma Coaches Mary Sage and Rick Sturm join us to share their experiences post-stem cell transplant and how they prepared their home for their arrivals
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Audrey Burton-Bethke
Audrey joined the HealthTree Foundation as the Myeloma Community Program Director in 2020. While not knowing much about myeloma at the start, she has since worked hard to educate herself, empathize and learn from others' experiences. She loves this job. Audrey is passionate about serving others, loves learning, and enjoys a nice mug of hot chocolate no matter the weather.
Mary Sage
Mary Sage lives with her husband Michael (who is also a MM Caregiver Coach), her adult son Raymond who is also one of her caregivers, and 2 dogs (Stella and Jake). She has lived in the Pacific Northwest region since 1986. She was diagnosed with Stage 2 IgG Lambda, standard risk in November 2015 and placed on immediate disability due to several spinal fractures and compressions, severe pain and limited mobility. Like many others, prior to diagnosis, she experienced years of bizarre blood results and chronic back pain that was becoming increasingly debilitating. Mary had a stem cell harvest in 2016 and a stem cell transplant (SCT) in 2019. Currently, her bloodwork shows standard risk MM; her MRD is positive with 5 parts per million. Since 2015 she has had 2 relapses and has become refractory to 2 treatments. Presently, her maintenance treatment, since May 2022, is KPd (Kyprolis, Pom and Dex) at 3 weeks on and 1 week off. Mary is in a good response with this treatment and hopes to be able to hold these results for a long time. Her pain is managed by a dedicated pain team who work closely with her to maintain quality of life.
Rick Sturm
Rick's myeloma journey began with severe back pain. That led to an MRI which found the cause to be a fractured lumbar vertebra (common for myeloma patients). It also discovered lytic bone lesions. More tests gave a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. That was at the end of January 2020. Through his son, who has many oncologist clients, he got the recommendation of an awesome oncologist in Denver at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute (CBCI). His initial treatment began with a cocktail of drugs, some of which he tolerated better than others. After 5 months, in July 2020, he had a stem cell transplant. Since then, he has been on a maintenance regimen with Darzalex FasPro (daratumumab) which initially was quite effective. However, after 2 years on that treatment, his numbers started going in the wrong direction. The next step in his journey is pairing daratumumab with Ventoclax.