Beginning of this journey

Doug was diagnosed with a cancer called Multiple Myeloma on August 14 2008.

Up until this time we had been traveling and living full time in our RV. We had come to Buena Vista Colorado in June to spend the summer on the recommendation of friends.


Doug had been having some nagging pain in his ribs and back since the spring but a routine physical back in Nebraska had shown nothing. Well the pain continued so Doug made an appointment at a local clinic. He ended up in the hands of our wonderful nurse practitioner, Jan Ommen. Jan gave him some pills for inflammation but they had no effect. Doug returned to the clinic and Jan ordered some tests which showed a "high sed rate" in the blood which made her suspicious. So next a chest x-ray was ordered and that showed a mass in the chest. Next step was a CT scan -- the scan showed that the mass was not coming from the lung, but from a rib. The scan showed innumerable bone lesions that had a "punched out" appearance suggestive of Multiple Myeloma. Jan called us into the clinic to give us the news. It was a huge shock, just devastating.

Doug had a good attitude right from the start. He never asked "Why me" or felt sorry for himself. He just said "What will be, will be." We both knew that MM is not a curable cancer. We have since learned that in the last couple of years, new drugs and research have made MM a very treatable disease. I have come full circle from thinking "my husband has a fatal cancer" to knowing that "my husband has a chronic disease".