About Multiple Myeloma

June 25,2007- Anchorage, AK

Cancer, tumor and malignant, now these are words that will get your attention. A Friday evening phone call from my brother Billy is how Sue and I came to realize that our son Michael had more than a bad or hurt lower back! Learning of this set a lot of things in motion, since Michael is in Anchorage, AK and in the hospital. The lazy weekend we had planned quickly turned to one of chaos and ended with me flying to Anchorage.

I set up a communications point by staying with brother Bill and his wife, Jamie. They have been in Alaska for 14 years and Bill helps keep the oil flowing from the ground to our gas tanks. I was using cell phone minutes by the gross. By Tuesday everyone was on the same page and a plan was beginning to take shape.

A sit down discussion with Michael's doctors was the first item on our list. Multiple myeloma is the diagnosis, a cancer in the family of lymphomas. I'll skip the detailed description and provide a link to reasonable (not too technical) description of myeloma: http://www.us.novartisoncology.com/info/disease_information/multiple_myeloma.jsp.
Although this is a chronic form of cancer it is treatable with the goal to achieve a state of remission.

Now it was time for Dr. Max, Michael's name for his favorite oncologist by using his first name only, to lay out a plan for treatment. At this point we start to get some good news and it is welcomed change. Myeloma treatment is a fairly standard plan and being in Anchorage turns out to have some benefits. First, there is an oral chemo therapy in conjunction with very limited radiation, chemo therapy by IV induction (a more aggressive chemo) and a bone marrow transplant and recovery. This would be spread out over approximately nine months.

Well, we know the bad news but now there is some good news to even things up, a bit. First, this form of cancer is normally found in older patients, 60 and up. At 35 Michael will be able to withstand the harsh side effects of the treatment. The Anchorage and Alaskan medical community work with the University of Washington Medical Center and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle for their bone marrow transplants. This hospital and research center is among the best available, pioneering many of the transplant procedures.

So, the process to remission begins!