Myeloma Chronicles — I lucked out, big time!

Like I said at my dinner table Thanks on Thanksgiving day, as well to folks I have talked to, I believe in many ways, I lucked out. People always give me this strange look, one that seems to say “Dude, you are battling cancer, what is being lucked out there?”. Let me explain in points. I lucked out:

1. that the KP Dr. on call forced me to ER on Memorial day
2. that the ER doctor was super thorough in leaving no stones unturned
3. that during my PET scan, the radiologist was there and looked at my scan
4. that the kind of cancer I have
5. that cancer I have is one whose treatment is very aggressively researched in terms of its treatment
6. I landed with Dr. Cheema as my Oncologist
7. that Dr. Cheema turned out to be a “true cowboy of cancer” in his agressive approach to treating me
8. that I live 15 minutes from KP Santa Clara
9. the kind of folks that touched my treatment at KP
10. in how my body reacted to the VRD treatment, and get the disease under control sooner than later
11. that I live 15 minutes from Stanford BMT center
12. that Dr. Sushma Bharadwaj and RN. Anu became my BMT Doc and case managers
13. and lastly how my body has reacted to the transplant thus far

So, given the lack of control in how I got this disease, it took a lot of these things to fall in place to achieve the kinds of outcomes that I have achieved thus far. Yes, I feel very lucky and fortunate — things could have been worse — and very grateful for where things are.