Palliative care, hospice care and pain management were discussed during Susan G. Komen’s May 24th Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) Impact Series event.
Caring for yourself or your loved ones with MBC involves conversations and decisions about how to prolong life while ensuring quality of life is the best it can be. Participants in the event offered expert opinions and real-life experiences to help guide those decisions and provide attendees with helpful information.
Dr. Kimberly Curseen, the director of supportive and palliative care outpatient services at Emory Healthcare helped to define palliative and hospice care and Stephanie Walker, who was diagnosed de novo in 2015, shared her personal story during the event. Stephanie is a former hospice nurse and patient advocate, where she helps to bring the patient voice to the work of Komen, researchers, and doctors so that care decisions always reflect what’s best for a patient.
Paula Jayne, PhD, MPH, Ashley Johnson-Fernandez, and Nancy Herard-Marshall, MS, LCAT, BC-DMT also joined in sharing their personal stories about the decisions they’ve made to improve their quality of life, including using palliative/supportive care services.
Dr. Kari Wisinski concluded the event by discussing pain management options and techniques, especially for persons living with MBC in their bones. Bone pain and bone breaks are common when MBC is in the bones and special treatment is often needed to strengthen ones’ bones. Dr. Wisinski serves as interim chief for the division of hematology, medical oncology and palliative care at the University of Wisconsin, School of Medicine & Public Health.
A recording of the event is available at komen.org/mbcseries. After registering and logging in on the homepage, click “Agenda” and then select the “May” tab. Click the orange “Play” button to view the video.
The third MBC Impact Series Event will take place on June 16th and provide more information about MBC in the Black community, including triple negative MBC, clinical trials and becoming your own best advocate. Register today.
