Chandramouli Nagarajan, Senior Consultant Hematologist, Director of Myeloma Services at Singapore General Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Cancer (P)Rehabilitation
Not at all a new concept but needs more awareness to be created.
In the context of Multiple Myeloma (P)Rehabilitation Cancer Rehab has some unique challenges.
Evidence tells us that
Multiple Myeloma Patients have poorer physical condition than control group population even when in remission.
But staying active can be a significant challenge for Multiple Myeloma patients as they have to deal with disease symptoms like fatigue / bone pain, side effects of treatment like neuropathy etc.
In the past physical activity was discouraged in Multiple Myeloma patients due to risk of bone fractures – but this leads to more fatigue, less mobility, joint stiffness, less muscle strength, poorer sleep and mood changes.
But now there is clear evidence that carefully planned exercise programme under the guidance of Rehab Physician and Physiotherapists can have a positive effect of bone density, improve bone health, decrease fatigue, improve sleep quality and has psychosocial benefits.
Outcome of several prospective studies of exercise in MM show that exercise is feasible for MM patients – under the guidance of a Rehab Physician (as some precautions is necessary like avoiding high-impact activities, end range movements, hyper-or rotational or movements causing excessive shearing).
Most active participants in MM exercise programmes show improvements in their Labs (like blood counts).
But perhaps even more importantly Quality Of Life parameters show significant improvement (like fatigue, pain, sleep and mood)
We had our Myeloma Support Group Cancer (P)rehabilitation event for patients today. It was heartening to see so many interested patients turn up for this!
Fortunate to have dedicated Rehab doctors like Dr. Tan Pei Ling, Dr. Mothi Babu Ramalingam and the our MM Advanced Practice Nurse Lee Zhao Yuan driving this programme and caring for our patients.
May be we should do this annually from now…”
More posts featuring Multiple Myeloma.
