Transcript

Andrew Schorr:

Some cancers are not curable, but these days they can often be well managed without diminishing the quality of life for patients.  Coming up, Dr. Tanya Wahl, medical oncologist, will discuss treatment for multiple myeloma, and you’ll also hear from her patient who now lives an active life with myeloma.  It’s all next on Patient Power. 

Hello and welcome to Patient Power brought to you by Overlake Hospital Medical Center, a network member of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.  Well, if you are diagnosed with cancer it is a scary word and, believe me, I know.  I was diagnosed with leukemia, but fortunately now, ten years later, continue to do well.  But when it happens, it can just be terrifying.  It did happen to really someone who lives near me on Mercer Island, Washington.  That’s Steve Henkel. 

Steve, you’re 75 now.  We’re going to tell the happy part of your story, and we’re going to meet your Overlake doctor who has made a huge difference for you, but let’s talk about when it started.  Age 73, in the spring you were opening a window.  What happened? 

Steve:

Well, my left shoulder popped, which led to my visit with my orthopedic surgeon who x-rayed it and found a myeloma in my left clavicle.

Andrew Schorr:

Now, did you have any idea what myeloma was?

Steve:

I had no idea at all.  I thought it was some kind of skin disease.

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  Which is melanoma, of course. 

Steve:

Yes.

Andrew Schorr:

But it can be confused.  But here you are, myeloma, but you thought maybe initially you’d go to the orthopedic doctor, you’d have some bone surgery or something and you’d be okay.  That wasn’t the case.  So you get referred to in this case a radiation oncologist, and they’re looking to see if there are other places where this cancer was.  And they found some, right? 

Steve:

That’s right.  They found a tumor on my thyroid cartilage.

Andrew Schorr:

So that led to recommendation for having radiation to try to get at this multiple myeloma, and you started that. 

Steve:

And at the front end of this Dr. Wahl, I was referred to her, and then to the radiologist.

Andrew Schorr:

We’re going to meet Dr. Tanya Wahl, a medical oncologist at Overlake who became the quarterback for your care in just a second, but the first course was let’s do radiation to try to reduce the size, to get at these lesions, and you began that.  Now, when you did had it really hit you what you were going through, that you were a man diagnosed with a serious cancer or, were you in the moment, if you will? 

Steve:

It didn’t really strike me until about a week and a half into the radiation when I began to really feel pretty miserable, and the criticalness of being in radiation, I understood the impact of that and then it struck home, yes.

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  Now, radiation was strong therapy for you, and while it was reducing the size of the tumors you ended up being in the hospital for a while.  And how would you describe your condition?  How low had you gotten, if you will? 

Steve:

Well, the radiation on the thyroid cartilage really affected my ability to swallow and to take nutrition, so I had to go into the hospital and receive intravenous feeding.

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  You were a sick puppy you told me the other day on the phone. 

Steve:

I think so, and a friend of mine who is a retired physician visited me in the hospital and he was absolutely certain I was terminal.  So that kind of belled the cat for me.

Andrew Schorr:

Right.  Well, I want to remind our listeners, though, as we do this program that it’s almost two years later, and we’re going to talk about what Steve does now in a very high quality of life.  So you mentioned Dr. Tanya Wahl.  She was your medical oncologist and remains that today.  And you did get out of the hospital and ultimately were able to have really state-of-the-art myeloma medicines.  Let’s meet Dr. Wahl and learn a little bit more about that, and we’ll continue hearing about your progress, Steve. 

Dr. Tanya Wahl is a medical oncologist at Overlake Hospital Medical Center and, Dr. Wahl, Steve is there with you at your office today and he’s doing well.  Multiple myeloma, is this one of these cancers where we have made progress?