Health Care Worker Discusses Cancer Diagnosis and Vaccine Experience While on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Pandemic

January 13, 2022
Jamie Cesanek
Jamie Cesanek

Jamie Cesanek, Assistant Web Editor for CURE®, joined the team in March 2021. She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington, where she studied journalism and minored in sociology and French. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, running, or enjoying time with friends and family. Email her at jcesanek@curetoday.com.

In this episode of the “Cancer Horizons” podcast, a physician assistant recalls his experience as a frontline health care worker during the COVID-19 pandemic and what it was like to get diagnosed with multiple myeloma during such a chaotic time.

Ryan Johnson is a physician assistant in the emergency department who was working through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic when he learned he had multiple myeloma. At the time, he questioned how he would remain safe and healthy, and if he’d be able to produce antibodies after receiving the vaccine.

Johnson answers these questions and more in this episode of the “Cancer Horizons” podcast, as he paints a vivid picture of what it was like to care for patients with COVID-19 while undergoing treatment for his cancer.

“I would like to get back to the old way of life and being able to go without a mask and being able to go to people's houses, you know, and just not have to worry about that stuff,” Johnson said in an interview with CURE®. “But it's the reality that the world isn't like that for me at this time.”

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