Inspirational Stories

My story starts with being diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM) in 2022. It is a terminal cancer that right now does not have a cure, but it is treatable. Life can and will take unexplained twists and turns, like without warning, your back hurts, and for me, that was from a compression fracture in my L4 – L5 vertebrae from lesions due to the MM, and that leads to learning that you have cancer. Like a lot of us, when you first hear those words, you are at a loss to explain how this came to be. After going through the anger and sorrow of my new condition, I came to realize that those emotions were not doing me any good, and they wouldn't cure my cancer. At that point, I accepted my condition and knew that I needed to move forward and make peace with myself. What a relief to unload that burden and get on with fighting every day and not letting my cancer beat me at anything, as it has already robbed me of so much that I refuse to give into this disease. For example, I knew that during my bone marrow transplant, chemo would take away all my hair, so before I went into the hospital, I had my hair all shaved off, as if to say, “Ha, beat you to the punch.” Cancer affects your whole family, and knowing this, I knew if I was miserable and sad, it would affect my wife and daughter and make them worry more than they have to.

So, my best advice is, if you can, keep a good attitude about yourself, then those around you will have a good attitude, and it will help relieve their anxiety.

There is so much more to my whole story, that if you heard it, you would think it was all made up. That will be for another time. To my fellow patients, keep fighting every day and try to keep a good attitude as we have enough to deal with.