Coffee with All4Cure - Joanne (1/4)

I don’t want myeloma to take away my today, so I always try to stay positive and enjoy the day. Some days, this is easy. Other days, I cry in the shower and I worry about how I am going to leave things for everyone else if something happens to me. Sometimes it can be hard to find the positive in a situation or in a day, but it’s always there. You just have to look hard enough and seek it out. I try not to get caught up in obsessing over what the future is going to hold. I have to remind myself that I am here now and I need to enjoy it. I have enough anger at my myeloma to fuel despair but instead, I decide no, I’m the boss and I’m going to be the boss as much as I can. I play little games with myself to reinforce that. For example, in my written correspondence I use “mm” for “multiple myeloma” without capitalizing as to not show it respect. Also, when I was getting my infusions early on, I imagined those little green toy army men going into my veins to fight the myeloma. The visualization helped me. I was gifted one of those little green army men and I took him to all of my infusions. It helped me practice my positive mindset and show the myeloma who was the boss.