My Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis
Hi. My name is Tim. I am a Multiple Myeloma patient. My diagnosis came about 8 ½ years ago. This has been one of the most interesting and challenging journeys I think a person can have in a lifetime. I want to take a moment to express how important it is to understand that this disease isn’t an automatic death sentence. At least I don’t at it like that. I prefer to look at it as a life sentence since I’m going to have this disease for the rest of my life. This journey has highs and lows that you will go through. Take the time to look at all your options.
My journey started a year or two before I had a diagnosis. I was an active duty Marine and enjoying my life. All of a sudden I wasn’t able to perform at what was my normal level. I started having trouble breathing when running. My pace got slow. I got tired really quick. I assumed that it was just old age catching up to me. I decided to retire from the military and set my sights on being a civilian again. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was already feeling the effects of Multiple Myeloma. So in July 2015 I said goodbye to the military life and started my new life in the private sector.
I landed a job as an enrollment director for a private school. The mother of one of my newest enrollees worked at a doctor’s office and suggested that I start going there. I explained how I didn’t need a doctor because I go through the Department of Veterans Affairs for any medical services, and I didn’t even use my civilian insurance at all. She kept asking me and I eventually decided to go ahead and get a physical since it was covered by insurance, and it would be great for service after the sale. It turns out that was the best decision I could have possibly made.
I was placed with a new doctor. He gave me what I would only describe as the most thorough physical I’ve ever had…. And that’s saying something since I’ve had a ton of military physicals over the years. I left there fairly impressed by the experience but never gave it another thought. I was still going to go to the VA for anything medical.
About a week later I got a call from the doctor. He said he saw something in my labs that concerned him and he wanted to run a few more labs. My first thought was this guy was going to go far…. only out here for a couple of weeks and he had the insurance game figured out. I went along and had the additional labs drawn and went on with my week. I don’t remember much about the calls and conversations that happened for the next couple of months after that.
Everything was crashing around me. I made the mistake of using Google every time I heard a new phrase and all that I kept finding was the same thing. Blood cancer. No cure. Dead in 5 ½ years. It not only changed my life, but it affected every single relationship that I had.
The good news is that I’m still here. The statistics ended up being just another number to me. It took me a really… really long time to get to the point where the cancer isn’t consuming my every thought every minute of every hour. My goal over the next year is to provide weekly blog entries to talk about the journey so far and how I went from blissfully ignorant to where I am now. Armed with knowlege and exprerince to help me in this fight.
Next week will deal with understanding what Multiple Myeloma is. We all know it’s a cancer, but it is so much more than that. See you next week.
