- Hello everyone, you're listening to, "A Day in the Life Podcast," brought to you by the International Myeloma Foundation. We hope this podcast brings messages of hope and resilience to members of the myeloma community and beyond. Today I'm talking with Matt and LeeAnn Weintraub, and their son, Noah. The Weintraubs have been deeply affected by myeloma as Matt's mother and Noah's grandmother passed away from the disease in 2017. I wanna thank all of you for taking time out of your schedules today to talk with me. To begin, if you can recall what it was like, Matt, when you heard your mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, had you ever heard of the disease before?
- My mother, Sherry Weintraub, had just retired from her teaching role after teaching for 25 years at LAUSD and with two young grandchildren, she was really excited and looking forward to spending more time with family, and we were on vacation and she was having some discomfort in her kinda esophagus chest area. And so, we said, you need to go see a doctor. And she ended up going to see an infectious disease specialist who noticed some ulcerations in her esophagus and said, oh, that's really strange. Your immune system should be kicking this one out, we need to do some testing, and they did some testing, which led to some wonky lab results, which then led to more testing, which then provided some insights that perhaps this was something more serious, perhaps multiple myeloma due to some of the antibody results. And then after a bone marrow biopsy, it confirmed that she had myeloma, and for us, the diagnosis was just a complete shock. And it was very scary. Obviously, we'd heard of what multiple myeloma was, but really didn't know much about it and what that meant and what her life would be like after that diagnosis and what type of treatment she would've to go through, and how long she could potentially live. And so there was a lot of fear and just general concern for her wellbeing. And it immediately put us in a place where we had to hunker down as a family and really think about how to best care for her.
- I remember very early on, there was kind of a sense of overwhelm. There's a lot to learn really quickly. It felt like there was already a learning curve and we were behind the curve. And I remember being in touch with the organization was that was a way for us to really gain information we needed early on. We were kind of, the doctors could only give so much information, and so it was really important for us to get like the right information, get it quickly, and make sure we knew what our next steps were. And so that was like, I remember that as being, we were, we went to that conference, do you remember the name of the conference we went to?
- It was an International Myeloma Foundation conference in Universal City.
- Patient and Family Seminar or regional community Workshop? One of the two.
- Yeah, one of the two, exactly. And it was really close to the diagnosis, so it was a bit fortuitous, the timing of it, and it was, I remember being very overwhelmed by all the information. There were people in the room that knew exactly, that had been diagnosed before and had maybe had the disease for multiple years and there were some people that were completely, newly diagnosed, and so it was absolutely overwhelming, but also really informative and to know that there were other people going through the disease, and needing support, both the patient and the family members, it was definitely a relief to, to know that there were others out there.
- Yeah, I was just gonna say, going to that conference I felt was like a turning point for us where we went from like having a lot of questions and not knowing what to do with all their questions, to being able to channel that into making decisions, taking steps forward, meeting, having the right connections with the right providers. That was, for me, that was a very helpful conference.
- So you were all primary caregivers to Sherry then, or?
- I would say my father was the primary caregiver. He was very devoted to my mother and sacrificed a lot to ensure that she got the best care possible. He went with her to all of her medical appointments and treatments. But yes, many of us played a significant role. In fact, my mother-in-law, Dottie Smith, came out from Virginia to California to help care for my mother when she was going from, for her stem cell transplant at the City of Hope and needed, my mom needed someone to care for her for the three or four weeks that she was there. And my dad was running a business and unfortunately, couldn't like completely step away from that. And so even my mother-in-law, God bless her, flew in to take care of her so that, we can continue to work and, and do the things that we needed to do.
- Noah, if you wanted to share with me, if you remember, when your grandmother was diagnosed, how was that her health condition explained to you? How did you understand what was going on?
- Yeah, so I was three when she was diagnosed and when they told me, I understood that she was sick, but I didn't really understand the severity of the condition. But she always told me that I don't need to worry about her, and that she tried to have the most fun she could with me. And I remember I visited her many days, most days of the week to the hospital and to be there with her.
- Beautiful, I actually lost my mom to multiple myeloma in 2011. So I know that when you go through this journey with them, you see them go through lots of ups and downs and it's not always all down because there are a lot of treatments and a lot of times where they're sort of stable. If you can recall for me, what were some of the up moments of her life that you shared with her or some of your fondest memories of your grandmother?
- Like I remember, so I remember going to her house, swimming in her pool, sleeping over at their house, celebrating holidays. And even though since I was seven when it happened, I can still remember lots of things about her, like her smile, she had a very thick New York accent.
- You were five when she passed away, remember? You were just starting kindergarten.
- Yeah, and I still like looking at pictures and hearing stories about her.
- I can add some things. My mom was 65 when she passed away, she was very young. And it was just two years after her diagnosis, and even up to her last days, she was smiling and singing and very hopeful. She always thought that she was gonna beat this, and that was really helpful to us to have that, positive outlook and the kind of knowing that she was willing and able to fight as long as she was able to. Despite dying at a young age, I'm so grateful, we're so grateful that we had so much time with her because she was just the best mother, the best mother-in-law and grandmother to our kids. She just was an incredible person and she was loved by all. Her students, her family, her friends, everyone thought that my mom was their best friend. That was something very remarkable about her. And there just wasn't a single person that had anything bad to say about my mom, she was just very, very special. And she gave herself to everyone that she was with. She loved her family, and we had just so many good memories, even post-diagnosis, we did the best to, to have as much fun together as we possibly could and to celebrate the good moments. And even during difficult moments, we were there together and battling this together. It's a really, when there's a diagnosis like this, it's a family, it impacts the entire family.
- Exactly, you kind of touched on this, how resilient she was coping with the illness, and sort of bouncing back as she was going through some of the treatments and some of the symptoms and side effects she was experiencing. And we talk a lot about resilience in the myeloma community in general, which is the ability to recover from difficulties. Can you speak to me a little bit about the resilience, maybe some you have as a family, having overcome the loss and grief of her from your lives?
- We all went through it together, and we were strong for her. And resilience requires having a positive attitude and we had to be hopeful. And during most of those difficult times. Losing her was very hard for us, but it brought us together, our family together, and we have many memories of her and we found many ways to honor her and remember her.
- Speaking of honoring her, I understand as part of your Bar Mitzvah project with the synagogue you're part of, you've chosen to volunteer some of your hours for the International Myeloma Foundation, why did you choose the IMF?
- To me, being a Bar Mitzvah means that you get to be a part of the community and get to become an adult in Judaism. And it's a major milestone in my life, and I wish that my grandma was here to share it with me and my family. The IMF is very important to me because it helped my family during a very tough time, and it's a Jewish value to give back to the community and do our part to make a positive difference in the world. And that's why I chose IMF for my project.
- We're very grateful for you and for all three of you, what can we do as an organization? You've already mentioned a lot of things to keep you engaged in our mission and help advance our goals for a cure in myeloma?
- Yeah, I would say that we know that having the right medications and treatment is important for people with myeloma, and it's just as important that people have, the psychosocial support and the resources in order to get them through their diagnosis and even further to advance the research that will hopefully one day get to a cure. And I think IMF is doing incredible work in that regard. We need IMF to continue to advance these efforts in order to hopefully make it so that future patients can live longer and more fuller lives. And, but in terms of engagement, I think IMF is doing such a great job doing important work, raising awareness, helping newly diagnosed families learn and get comfortable with the information, there's so much information out there, and being able to process it and to get the support that's needed is truly important.
- I think another thing to point out is that your mom, with being a teacher, being so a part of a community, having her close family nearby, she had a lot of support just because she was such a positive, warm person who had so many good relationships, but not all patients are gonna have that same, care team, support network, community around them. And so an organization like IMF is there to provide help to people like Grandma Sherry, as well as people who might not have the same blessings that she did.
- And we're incredibly grateful for families like yourself that continue to give back even after such a tremendous loss to your family. Is there anything that I haven't asked you today that you'd like to share with our listeners?
- Thank you for having us on your podcast and it was good to share about her, about my grandma.
- We so appreciate the opportunity to not only share more about my mom, Sherry Weintraub, but also to highlight the important work of the International Myeloma Foundation and the work that you're doing. It is our honor and pleasure to be able to contribute in any way to the work that, the important work that you're doing. And, we appreciate you having us on.
- Well, thank you, thank you for taking your time today to share your stories and your perspectives. You've been listening to, "A Day In The Life Podcast," brought to you by the International Myeloma Foundation. To learn more about the IMF and Myeloma, visit us at myeloma.org.
