Coffee with All4Cure - Mike (4/4)

I look at myeloma as more than what it is. I know cancer is just cells uncontrollably replicating but I see it as an entity. It helps me rationalize the wicked disease to imagine that it has a very bitter soul. It's my make-believe way of addressing it as an adversary. I'm not a superstitious person, but I see cancer as something that wants to take you over and, in a sense, own you. That is what angered me the most about my myeloma diagnosis. It can't own me. I have cancer, it might make me sick and may even kill me but it will never take over who I am. It’s a philosophy that worked for me. Not every patient can relate and it is important for people to find what helps them. Throughout my myeloma journey, I’ve learned an awful lot about myself and about life. One way I learned was by studying people who were in a similar place as me. One story that comes to mind starts when I would have to get my blood drawn during treatment. For months and months, virtually every morning would start in the SCCA blood draw room. It's a big lobby and I would see the same people every morning. Together, we would sit for 20 or 30 minutes just waiting to get our blood drawn. I started to see what cancer does to people and the strength that some of them had was inspiring. I can think of one lady as a shining example. She was sitting right across from me and I could tell she was hurting. She seemed to try to conceal her pain. I watched her go up to the counter where the same staff we had all gotten to know received each patient. She put a smile on her face and said, “Hey, how are you doing? How was your picnic yesterday?” She was trying to make that person feel good despite the pain she was in. I try to follow her example. No matter how much pain I'm in, I try to smile. That being said, I am careful to tell anyone in my position to be more positive. I can't know another patient’s situation since we're all so different, but I do think that smiling through it is better than the opposite. To me, that's fighting. It is positivity that fights something as wicked and evil as cancer. If you smile, cancer loses something. The happier you are, the more it loses.