My name is Dan. I was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM). After a battery of excruciating, painful biopsies and bloodwork, my doctors prescribed chemotherapy and Velcade once a week, then twice a month. My myeloma numbers were going way down, and my platelet count was diving straight to the bottom, single digits. My routine appointments with my doctor not in my city were going south. The doctor told me to stop taking all my cancer medications. What was happening to me was my MM was completely going into leukemia, a disease called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). I am not taking any medicines for anything as we speak because the doctors think my chemotherapy and Velcade are the culprits of this. I will continue to see my doctors, both in my city and my other doctor in Kansas City.
I work for a living in a city 70 miles from my home. I travel there every day to work. The people I work around all wonder why I drive all that way to work. I will never change my response to any of them or anybody else. I tell them it gives me "Dan Time." I process what I need to do when I get home, then in the morning, I drive to work and do it again at the end of my shift. I travel 140 miles roundtrip. At work when I sometimes think about myself, I have trouble breathing, and I feel like I am blacking out. I will not get anyone hurt nor will I get myself hurt. I have to sit down often and catch my breath. I have a full-time job as a heavy machinery mechanic, which is when a big machine breaks down or needs something, I have my tools there in the company’s shop, and I repair whatever is broken. This is the life of Dan and my disease. I pray every day, then I listen to religious channels on my radio. I have had some really good praying to God and Jesus. For someone I know and for myself, I will never stop praying because if you do not pray, God will not know you need him.
Dan
multiple myeloma (MM)
