Back In the Chair II

The stories at the clinic can be wild. The guy sitting next to me earlier this week got diagnosed with mutiple myeloma 8 years ago. In addition, he also had severe kidney problems related to the cancer. He got the call in December like me - a time when you really only want to hear about snow men and reindeer and Christmas lights and mistle toe. His call actually came right on Christmas day. He was out hunting with his son and felt fine. He was in his 50's living in Pennsylvania and had had some broken ribs and bone pain. The test results confirmed he had myeloma. The doctor didn't provide many options; gave him only months to live. "There must be something you can do," the guy said, according to what he told me. But the doctor didn't have much to offer. So the guy found a unique clinic in Little Rock, Ark., that specifically focused on myeloma. (I did some digging. He's probably referring to the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy. I hadn't heard of it before this week.) The cost to save his life was incredible. He says he spent $110,000 of his on retirement savings to pay for his stay, travel and treatment there. He said he wasn't ready to die and he was going to do whatever it took. His mother in law had been diagnosed with mutiple myeloma a month before he was. She died, though, despite the fact that she also went down to Arkansas. The chemo just didn't work. But this man, who shares my doctor, is alive and grossly defeated the odds. After being in Little Rock, he found out about my doctor and decided to undergo treatment in Baltimore, which is significantly closer to his home in Pennsylvania. He had a stem cell transplant -actually two back to back - and it kept him in remission for 8 years. Unfortunately, the cancer has come back, which is why he was sitting next to me getting "infused." The problem with cancer coming back is that it can become resistant to the old chemo drugs. It also tends to come back stronger. Luckily, there are new drugs our doctor is trying. And he's planning to have another transplant. He's already defeated the odds once. I don't see why it wouldn't happen again. What's interesting is that he's the son of a preacher. He said that while he was in the hospital after the transplant he went into a coma, largely due to his kidney issues. They thought he was gone. All he remembers is a dream in which God came to him and said, "Relax. You don't need any more medicine today. You are fine." He said God gave him the exact names of the drugs the nurses were going to try to give him when he awoke. But God told him he wouldn't need it and to turn the nurses down when they attempted to give it to him. He did. He said he woke up, praising God and attempting to rip away all of the tubes attached to him. He walked out of the hospital the next day feeling as if he had only been dreaming for a night when in fact he had been in a coma for days. What's also interesting is that several people in the area where he lives have been diagnosed with myeloma and other cancers. I'm not working right now, but I'm still a curious journalist and this just doesn't sound right. "We think it has something to do with our area," the guy's wife said. The guy's brother in law was diagnosed with cancer. He tried to get him to go to our doctor but he was reluctant to go to a doctor three-plus hours away. He died. So did another family member. He's even seen patients at other hospitals die after their transplants. He just kept saying how much respect he has for our doctor and how good he is. He said he thought he was too young to get cancer. If he thought he was too young at 50, I know he thought I was ridiculously young at 30. Maybe that's why he felt an urge to tell me his story. He kind of seemed like he was surprised that I was being hooked up just like him. As he told sadder parts of his story, his wife kept things upbeat and said to me, "Your young and strong. You'll be fine." And the guy kept praising our doctor. Our profiles are completely different. He's white, middle-aged and from a small town ... and a stranger. Honestly, I don't even know his name. We never did the whole exchange thing. Just went straight to the point. He opened up to me about deaths in his family and his deepest fears. Not sure I really wanted to hear every detail but overall, I did walk away with a brutally honest picture of what it's like to be thrown in a cancer battle and survive year after year. He's back in the chair 8 years later. But I'm not worried for him.