The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Blog

Patient Programs Update

millss — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:47:56 GMT

This time of year we all seem to have so much more to do. Why not plan some things just for you? If you have myeloma or know someone who does, check out our new fall program at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). We also have several local events (Chapter Education Programs) about all types of blood cancers going on throughout the year. Included below are some offerings you may want consider in the coming weeks and months.

National Education Programs

October 15, 2008 - Understanding Myeloma: From Diagnosis Through Treatment. Register now for this telephone education program which will feature Dr. Asher A. Chanan-Khan. Participants will have a chance to ask Dr. Chanan-Khan questions during this hour and a half program.

Chapter Education Programs

Contact your local chapter about the availability of the following programs in your area:

Welcome Back: Facilitating the School Experience for Childhood Cancer Survivors - Note that parents are also welcome at this event.
Getting the Best Cancer Care at Age 55 and Older
Milestones in Myeloma Therapy: An Overview for Patients and Caregivers
The Road to Discovery: Emerging Therapies in Blood Cancers

There are also other programs that occur all throughout the year. Find out more about the following on-going programs:

Family Support Groups - These are regularly scheduled meetings that bring together patients, families and friends.
First Connection - Be matched with someone who has been through a similar cancer experience. Volunteers are also welcome to join this program.
Chat Sessions - Every Monday and Wednesday NHL patients are welcome to come online and chat about their cancer experience.

As always, feel free to share suggestions, ideas or questions with our Information Resource Center staff. Contact us via our Contact Us form or by phone at 1-800-955-4572. Or just visit us at www.LLS.org.

The costs of cancer

millss — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:41:33 GMT

Unless you’ve been hiding somewhere, you’ll know that the economy is having a little bit of a tough time right now. The headlines I’m seeing as I’m typing this are:

“Cash strapped, and driving less”
“The next shoe to drop in housing”
"Financial markets looking for bottom”
“A slice of pizza gets pricier” (And yes, that’s a real headline – and a real shame for pizza lovers.)

It’s not easy dealing with a strapped economy when you’re well, let alone when you have a disease like cancer. You might already be feeling uneasy about your job, retirement income, and assets. On top of everything else you now have medical bills. It’s crazy, and it’s making you crazy (I would be anyway).

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) can’t solve all of your financial woes, but we have a few resources that may be able to help you find some relief.

Patient Financial Aid – This program reimburses for some medications, transportation costs, and procedures.
Co-Pay Assistance Program – This program helps with co-pay and prescription medication costs.

There is also a wealth of advice about your employment rights as a cancer survivor, issues with insurance, and other programs that help with prescription drug coverage.

Finally, there is an archived teleconference in the Survivorship Education Series section of the LLS website called, “Cancer Survivorship: Practical Tips for Managing Your Financial and Insurance Issues.”

What do you do when your medical bills become too high? Are you going through this now?

If you think someone you know would benefit from this information share this blog post with them.

Seven (yes, seven!) new podcast feeds

millss — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:13:31 GMT

We sponsor a lot of very interesting teleconferences, but they usually take place on a weekday in the middle of a day. This means that many people who are at work or busy doing something else are not able to listen to these live events. Luckily we have our telephone education programs archived on our website, and additionally we have several podcast feeds.

Up until just a few days ago we had three podcast feeds:

Blood CancerCAST – all of our teleconferences
CML LinksCAST – Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia teleconferences
Lymphoma LinksCAST – Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma teleconferences

We just added seven more podcast feeds to make it easier for people to listen to the teleconferences they are interested in. Here’s a list of our new feeds:

AML PathwaysCAST – Acute Myelogenous Leukemia teleconferences
Childhood CancersCAST – teleconferences related to the childhood cancers
CLL LinksCAST – Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia teleconferences
MDS CAST – Myelodysplastic Syndrome teleconferences
Myeloma OutlookCAST – Myeloma teleconferences
Non-Hodgkin LymphomaCAST – Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma teleconferences
SurvivorshipCAST – teleconferences related to practical information for those living with the blood cancers

Okay – so a lot of people may not know what RSS or podcasts are. I’ll try to explain.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) has been around for quite a while (since about 1999), but it hasn’t really taken off until the last few years. Personally, I didn’t really start to utilize it myself until a couple of years ago, but now I am taking advantage of it on almost a daily basis.

RSS allows you to read content from all of your favorite websites in one place. Do you find that you don’t have time to visit all of those websites on a daily basis, but you still want to read their content? The solution is to create an account with an aggregation service like Google Reader or Newsgator, then add your favorite website’s feed to the aggregator. At this point those websites syndicate their information to you.

A podcast feed acts the same way, except instead of text-based content, websites (like ours) can syndicate their digital media files (like teleconferences) to you. With our podcast feeds you’ll always stay up to date when there is a new teleconference, making it so you have less of a chance to miss that important and informative information.

Learn more about our new feeds and RSS on our LLS News Feeds and Podcasts page.

Mark your calendars for our upcoming (and free) teleconferences

millss — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:33:00 GMT

Did you know that The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society sponsors regular teleconferences covering topics ranging from Cancer Survivorship: Practical Tips for Managing Your Financial and Insurance Issues to Emerging Therapies in Myeloma? Patients and caregivers, as well as healthcare professionals, are encouraged to register for these free events.

Here are a couple of upcoming teleconferences:

February 13, 2008 - Advocating for Your Child's Learning Needs: Through Treatment and Beyond
February 21, 2008 - Stem Cell Transplantation: Current Trends and Future Directions

If you are unable to attend these teleconferences as they happen they are archived later on our website which you can access via our podcast feeds or in the National Education Workshops section of our website.

Have you listened in on one of our sponsored teleconferences before?