John Tracy was diagnosed with
multiple myeloma (MM) in 1999
My name is John Tracy and I was diagnosed with IgG kappa stage III multiple myeloma on November 23rd,1999. As I had been very active and had only recently been half of a two man crew bringing a 38-foot trimaran up from Mexico to Victoria on a course 800 miles offshore, an exercise quite physically demanding, the diagnosis came as something of a shock. I was told my prognosis was two months to two years to live, possibly five years if I had a successful bone marrow transplant. I had just turned sixty-five.
Fortunately I went on the internet and discovered a message from a gentleman in his 80s who had been living with multiple myeloma for seventeen years. I thought “If he can do it, why not me?”
On February 21st, 2000, I had the stem cell transplant. It went well. A that time the chemo dose given was heavier than that given today. They said I would lose my hair and would likely be sick. They were right about the hair but, while I had to swallow hard a few times, I did not throw up once. I was advised that it would take me about a year to fully recover from treatment, which I did not believe. Again, they were right. Patients now, though, seem to be recovering much faster.
Unlike patients around me, I did not get the response from the transplant that we had hoped for. In the five years following, I did almost every treatment that was available to me to hold the disease in check, hoping that a new drug or treatment would come along that would prove more effective. In that time we were never able to do more than stabilize the myeloma at a high level of activity.
Early in the game, I realized that my future was pretty much out of my hands. Worrying would not help, though not worrying is easier said than done. I decided I would treat this as just another adventure. I would plan for the worst but expect the best. This philosophy has served me well. The toughest part was telling my wife and five children the bad news...
