During the summer of 2009 my hands were in such pain that something needed to be done. I called Roanoke Orthopedic and found out I needed a referral to see Dr. Hagan who had operated on Charlie for his carpal tunnel several years earlier. I made an appointment in early August with Dr. Ella Youngblood for a physical and consultation regarding my hands. Ella made the referral for Dr. Hagan and the process began for that procedure. Following the blood work, we believe Ella suspected something regarding my anemia and requested a bone scan and other tests. Following these tests, I was referred to Dr. Paul Richards at Blue Ridge Cancer Care, who we had known from First Baptist. He is a hematologist and oncologist. I had a great first visit and hindsight tells me that he, along with Dr. Youngblood, suspected Multiple Myeloma. During the first visit he extracted bone marrow for a biopsy test, and requested a lot more blood work. Finally, on Sept. 15 we had our follow-up visit with Dr. Richards who told us the findings from the blood tests. Before this visit Charlie and I had an uneasy feeling about the results so I asked Dr. Nancy Dye, a good friend, to go with us and help interpret what Dr. Richards told us.
After all the tests, it was confirmed that I have Multiple Myeloma. Dr. Richards explained to me that this type of cancer is not curable, but treatable. He spent some time fleshing out this disease, but it was surreal in that moment. The next evening Nancy Dye came to my home and graciously explained all the physical, mental and emotional implications of Multiple Myeloma to me and my family. It was good for everyone to get their questions answered and learn what to expect with the illness.
My treatments will consist of chemotherapy twice a week for two weeks, and then a week off. I will repeat this process 6 times for a total of 18 weeks. At some point during these 18 weeks (determined by the Dr.s) I will go to Duke to have my stem cells harvested. This may take 2-3 days. Following this I return to Roanoke and complete my chemotherapy. Following the initial 18 weeks I then go on oral chemo for an undetermined amount of time until my cancer cells are destroyed. After this I return to Duke for my stem cell transplant which takes 2-4 weeks.
