My Dad's Story

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am Craig L. Myers, age 55, who was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma April 2004 by Dr. John Howard here in Chico at Enloe Hospital. It came as a real shock as I would imagine many cases do and we were devastated in the beginning. As we progressed into the program we learned what to expect with each visit.

It was an accident that the Myeloma was found due to several months of treatment for Pulmonary Embolisms. I had three of those taken care of by Dr. Verma. But something was still wrong with the results to tests that I had received. Doctor Howard an Oncologist/Hematologist and his staff worked diligently to find the cause of my aches and pains. Knowing there was a cancer somewhere he searched until he found the cause through the Bone Marrow Biopsy. I can’t thank his staff enough for the words of kindness that they gave to us in making us feel part of their family.

We were connected with Dr. Martin at UC San Francisco through Dr. Howard and found Dr Martin to be just as concerned and kind as Dr. Howard. We met many new staff members including Tom Leahy the one who followed me around and made sure that I was doing well and he was just as kind and considerate as all of the others.

We set the date for an Autologous Stem Cell Transplant and began the Chemo Treatments. After three months of the first one we found that it hadn't worked at all. So after two weeks we began the second treatment which finally did the job. By this time I had learned all of the Nurses on the fourth floor in Enloe and they always knew when I was there the day that I arrived and tried to make me feel like I was the only person on their floor.

The Transplant occurred in November 2004 at UCSF Medical Center. I can remember things up to the last Chemo and the White Cell Extraction, then the rest is a cloud for several months. I guess I was lucky because I gave them twice as many cells as they needed in the first four hour session. They took another bunch the next day because the day before I had run a high temperature for 24 hours and we weren’t sure the cells would be good. The doctors and nurses there were attentative and considerate too.

It was great to have a family to support me along with the doctors and nurses in this time of disaster; especially my wife Sherry who spent all of the time she had at my bedside even sleeping in one of those fold out chairs for as long as her poor body could take it. She pirated in some real food as often as possible. I mean the food there is healthy, but as Crocodile Dundee would say, “It taste like dung.” The first month was spent in the Hospital and then 11 months were spent at home without visitors ending up with the next year behind a medical mask if I wanted to see someone. But most of the time I didn’t feel like seeing anyone anyway. There were still times when I became neutropenic and had to go back to the mask for a time.

In January 2006 after only 14 months I came out of remission and had to start looking for some kind of treatment to hold off the cancer a bit longer. We then found Doctor Wolf and his staff and went into a Revlimid Trial treatment at Alta Bates. Now we were traveling to two hospitals in the Bay Area and one on Chico for treatments. During this trial we dealt with three strokes at home through which I had lost my speech and some of my memory. I thought that my speech had come back and repaired itself until last week I heard a recording of myself and it brought tears to my eyes to realize that I appeared to be a drunk with slurred speech.

I have been off the Revlimid for six months now and my counts are moving very slowly. We don’t know when that will change but we don’t think of that part any more than necessary.

Through these past four years we have received the blessing of 10 grandchildren, something I wasn’t sure I would have the chance to ever appreciate and each one of them a very special individual.

With my wonderful family and doctors I continue to strive to improve and make my life as meaningful as possible. My wife takes me up to the mountains and National Parks which are close by and I can continue to express myself through photography. And through my lens I can see some of the miracles of nature. She has taken me over to the coast and the botanical garden there to just sit on the beach and listen to the waves on the shore and the call of the seagulls to me is very soothing. They took me to Colorado Rocky Mountain Park one year where my son lives and he took me up to see the Elk, being patient with my inability to walk very fast on uneven ground. I have fallen a few times but I keep getting back up realizing that one day I may not, But it’s NOT TODAY!

With all of the help and support, the last four years have gone by fast and they have been very enjoyable. I love spending time in the garden and get excited at each bloom that come up and out. Even as I struggle some days, knowing that I must force myself to get out of bed; take that walk; or what ever else is laid before me for the day. I see that day and every other as a blessing that I can still experience another day, another laugh, smile, joke, or baby bird or sprouting flower as a day to get up and try and leave the bad days behind me to remember NOT TODAY! Get up and experience today.