Huntsman Cancer Institute Myeloma Program – Denese and Kim's Multiple Myeloma Treatment Diary

Dear myeloma patients and their friends, family members, and caregivers,

Kim and Denese

Hello out there! My name is denese (with a little "d"... something that started when I wrote poetry in high school).

My husband Kim was diagnosed with multiple myeloma on October 23, 2008, at the age of 61. That day our lives changed forever. Kim is a licensed clinical social worker and retired from his full-time position in 2003. He has also conducted child custody evaluations for 30+ years on a part-time basis and continues with that endeavor today. I retired as a full-time realtor two years ago and work with Kim as his office administrator/secretary. We moved from our home in Park City, Utah to Morgan, Utah about two years ago with the plan to retire and travel in our motor home with our little Shih-Tzu dog, Kd.

Kim’s initial symptoms:

Kim had been experiencing some back pain for a year or so and was seeing a spine doctor who had been treating him for a T5 compression in his vertebrae, which we assumed was an old injury he had sustained in a car accident when he was 14. He had been taking mild pain medications, gentle stretching and walking, physical therapy, and epidural steroid injections. The pain got progressively worse and a CT scan was eventually ordered. The scan revealed a tumor and the doctor said it was multiple myeloma.

From there to here:

On the day we received this terrifying news, I was in our RV in California with our dog and Kim had flown to Salt Lake City for two weeks to take care of some business (he is an expert witness in child custody court cases). He was due to fly back to California on Friday morning.

Thursday evening, Kim called (keep in mind folks, I’m in California and Kim is in Utah—ALONE!) and told me the doctor thought he had a cancer called multiple myeloma. Never heard of it. What was it, and how bad was it?

We both sat down at the computer and Googled multiple myeloma. We were trying to be somewhat adult and rational and knew we had to be strong. We soon realized this was not the "let’s just take a bit of chemo or have an operation and get on with our lives" disease.

Interestingly, the very first website that came up on the computer was HUNTSMAN CANCER INSTITUTE in Salt Lake City, Utah and doctors Tricot and Zangari. Lucky us, we only live an hour away from Salt Lake City. Many of their patients travel from all around the country to get treated there.

We knew for sure we wanted to be evaluated there, but shouldn’t we check out other places too? We figured we should explore all possible treatments. We made the mistake of trying to read everything we could on myeloma, and it didn’t take long to be completely overwhelmed. It also didn’t take us long to figure out that the "older" information is very negative and reports of six month to two year survival rates were not uncommon.

Meanwhile, the Huntsman Cancer Institute Myeloma Program’s website reports data of ten plus years with their tandem stem cell transplant treatment protocol. Where would you want to be? Huntsman Cancer Institute is without a doubt the GOLD STANDARD of myeloma treatment.

From husband and wife to patient and caregiver:

Kim and I have always had an incredibly close relationship. We have been best friends since my daughter introduced us 20 years ago. She thought Kim would be good for me. We do everything together. We respect each other. I am extremely fortunate to be married to Kim. He is very romantic, he’s smart, he loves to buy me jewelry, he sends me flowers all the time, and he’s always writing me funny little love notes. He prefers I shop at Nordstrom’s (seriously), and, oh yeah, he’s the cook of the family, too. Man did I score!! Did I forget to mention he’s very good looking? Even now, without his hair and beard.

The best thing about me is I’m organized. I think Kim married me because I could balance a checkbook. I definitely got the best out of this union folks.

Once Kim was accepted into the protocol at Huntsman Cancer Institute, our adventure as caretaker and patient began. Some days we get the jobs confused and he has to take care of me (emotionally), but we usually figure it out.

I invite you to join us on our journey to save Kim’s life (and mine). I hope to give fellow caregivers some insight as to what we go through and to share from a caregiver’s perspective what the myeloma patient experiences. It is not the easiest adventure we’ve undertaken, but it is the most important and we will go through and get through every single moment together!

Sincerely,