Tracy Jalbuena Career Transition
Donation protected
Although her calendar is bursting with chemotherapy, doctors’ appointments (sometimes 3 ½ hours away from home) and a quest to find a compatible bone marrow donor, Tracy Jalbuena is thinking about how she can continue to care for others. In October, she will attend a conference in Chicago will that teach her how she can continue to help patients in a more flexible way than her career as an emergency physician allows. Let’s support this career transition, and let Tracy focus the funds that would have been spent on this conference on other things: medical treatment, associated travel, and her young family.
The backstory:
Three years out of her emergency medicine residency at The Ohio State University, Tracy Jalbuena was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis, a non-malignant, but deadly disorder of the plasma cell. Though she had a "complete hematologic response” following chemotherapy, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma three years later. Although it’s not unheard of for a patient to develop both, it’s pretty rare.
Despite months and months of chemotherapy, many doctors’ appointments, and a quest to find a donor for a bone marrow transplant, Tracy recently reached out to a nationwide network of physician moms, asking us if we had any ideas how she can continue to pursue one of her first loves: caring for patients.
She described the heartache she had over not being able to provide direct patient care at this time. She asked us for ideas regarding how to transition to a flexible, non-clinical career during her chemotherapy. She wrote, “I'm having a really tough time sorting out my new professional role in life, now that my primary professional love - taking care of patients - has been stripped away from me. This is causing so much grief. It's complicated, but I hope I'm not doomed to feel crappy, go to chemo appointments, and surf the Internet in my PJs the rest of my life.”
Many women reached out with thoughts, prayers and advice. Now, Tracy plans to attend a conference that will equip her with information, contacts and a plan of how she can maintain her identity as a healer during her multiple myeloma treatment. Let’s help her in this quest.
To learn more, go to http://www.today.com/health/mixed-race-matchless-woman-rare-cancer-seeks-donor-t27461 and consider becoming a bone marrow donor (bethematch.org).
The backstory:
Three years out of her emergency medicine residency at The Ohio State University, Tracy Jalbuena was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis, a non-malignant, but deadly disorder of the plasma cell. Though she had a "complete hematologic response” following chemotherapy, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma three years later. Although it’s not unheard of for a patient to develop both, it’s pretty rare.
Despite months and months of chemotherapy, many doctors’ appointments, and a quest to find a donor for a bone marrow transplant, Tracy recently reached out to a nationwide network of physician moms, asking us if we had any ideas how she can continue to pursue one of her first loves: caring for patients.
She described the heartache she had over not being able to provide direct patient care at this time. She asked us for ideas regarding how to transition to a flexible, non-clinical career during her chemotherapy. She wrote, “I'm having a really tough time sorting out my new professional role in life, now that my primary professional love - taking care of patients - has been stripped away from me. This is causing so much grief. It's complicated, but I hope I'm not doomed to feel crappy, go to chemo appointments, and surf the Internet in my PJs the rest of my life.”
Many women reached out with thoughts, prayers and advice. Now, Tracy plans to attend a conference that will equip her with information, contacts and a plan of how she can maintain her identity as a healer during her multiple myeloma treatment. Let’s help her in this quest.
To learn more, go to http://www.today.com/health/mixed-race-matchless-woman-rare-cancer-seeks-donor-t27461 and consider becoming a bone marrow donor (bethematch.org).
Organizer and beneficiary
Hannah Hays
Organizer
Delaware, OH
Tracy Jalbuena
Beneficiary