Sharing Our Stories - Sherman W.

Dear Lisa,

I was terribly troubled when I heard about your devastating cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, I know all too well about this life altering news. I too, was diagnosed in the month of April. My journey began in the year of 2012. There were no discern-able signs that something was wrong with me. This particular day arriving at work as I pulled into my parking space, just before I moved to open the car door, I felt a sharp piercing pain that I had never experienced before. It wasn’t until I swung my legs around and attempted to stand up to exit the vehicle. I COULD NOT STAND!! It was the most excruciating pain that I had ever experienced. I was bent over for a few moments and finally gathered myself to stand straight up. Not knowing what would be ahead for me, I just knew this was a much different kind of pain.

The next day, I had no choice but to go to the emergency room. The pain was just that bad. It was in my chest and my collarbone area. I was given a CT Scan and it showed major bone breakage in multiple areas throughout my body. The lead attending ER doctor on duty came into my room and sat down next to me and said nothing. She looked rather perplexed as if she saw something that she didn’t want to say out loud. Complete silence. She kept looking down at the paperwork and finally looked at me and ask if I had been in some type of car accident. I replied, no. She then asked me my age (40). I told her and she replied, that doesn’t seem right. As she glared down at the paperwork and looked at me and back to the paperwork again. She said, without being an Oncologist and purely speculative, I think you may have some type of cancer. Hearing those words uttered was completely devastating. At that point, I felt that my days just might be numbered. With all of the pain I felt and uncertain nature of what I was facing, I was heartbroken.

There’s just no good way to receive bad news but try sharing that same news with a loved one. I had to tell my wife what I could be potentially facing. One of the hardest things that I had ever had to tell anyone. Without saying, she was crushed. She was in disbelief as I were. My wife and I both needed answers. We are in a time where we don’t have to wait for the information about a matter that we don’t completely understand, we can simply do an internet search to find out. At the time, my illness had not yet been confirmed by doctors, but it was thought to be the signs of Multiple Myeloma. A blood cancer that effects the bones. I had never heard of it. If you look up Multiple Myeloma, it essentially said at the time back in 2012, there’s no cure for the disease and you won’t live long. Warning to all! A google search is not recommended by doctors as a tool to understand your illness better. Boy, I found out the hard way. My fears were confirmed at least by that initial search, that I would not be here too much longer.

We have some of the best doctors and hospitals in the Washington D.C. area. But, trying to find someone to actually accept you as a new cancer patient is another matter. It took some time and maneuvering to just be seen by an Oncologist. I tried a local Oncologist office, no appointments for three months, I tried John Hopkins, pretty much the same and finally I landed a spot at the Lombardi Center at Georgetown University. I was ordered to take another CT Scan and a bone marrow biopsy. The bone marrow biopsy is a vehicle that’s used to pin point the specific take of blood cancer and especially Multiple Myeloma. By the way, the bone marrow biopsy procedure, is essentially a giant needle and or a small drill used to extract blood/bone/marrow from your lower back bone. Without saying. This can be a very painful procedure. Yet, it is vital in obtaining a clear and correct diagnosis.

I received a call from the doctor’s Office at the Lombardi Center to officially tell me that indeed, it is multiple myeloma. The doctor assured me that once I started receiving treatment, I would start to feel a little bit better. I was still experiencing a considerable amount of pain. This disease causes major havoc to the affected areas. It was discovered that I had a missing rib (which had deteriorated) many hot spots which are referred to as “lytic bone lesions”. These lesions are capable of penetrating your bones and not only are they extremely painful, but causes holes to develop in your bones and or complete deterioration. I had a small affected area on my spine, but mainly in my sternum and collarbone areas. I was thinking to myself, it has to get better from here. And it did indeed!!

As I was about to take on this cancer treatment at the Lombardi Center Georgetown Hospital, I was contacted by a colleague/friend in the medical profession. I was at home and didn’t feel well at all. In fact, I felt helpless and quite frankly hopeless. Anyone who has been diagnosed with Multiple Mye.

loma will have these days. My colleague (the President’s Physician) heard about my situation and asked if he could help. He offered to connect me with a team of doctors at the National Institutes of Health who happened to be conducting a clinical trial for Multiple Myeloma patients. This was my Shug Avery moment, God was trying to tell me something. Of course, I accepted the offer. I relayed this information to my doctor at Georgetown and he was incredibly happy for me and encouraged me to take it. He told me that it would be much more cutting- edge treatment options than they could offer me. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I had already agreed to go with NIH, besides, he accepted my case and was willing to give me a chance. That was the least that I could do.

It was like the first day of school. When I arrived on the NIH campus, I met up with the team of doctors that would be monitoring me through this entire treatment cycle. These men and women are the best in the world of medicine and research. They described what would be the treatment regimen and timeline. It would be a nine-month clinical trial which would intel a combination of chemotherapy drugs, a bone strengthener plus countless scans and bloodwork. My treatment days were Tuesday, Wednesday and some Fridays. Because it was a clinical trial, the NIH was able to give me the FDA approved drugs and some experimental drugs that were being considered for treatment, but not yet fully approved. The drugs that were used were Cafrfilzomib, Dexamethasone (bone strengthener) and Revlimid. Cafrfilzomib and Dexamethasone are administered through IV and Revlimid is a 21day chemotherapy pill taken at night. I would take Revlimid for 21 days then - rest for seven days and start again. To check your progress, you would be given a PET Scan and a Bone Marrow Biopsy. Once I began this treatment cycle, I started to feel much better. According to the doctors, I achieved full remission during my second cycle of treatment. This was pretty extraordinary. According to the doctors, other patients didn’t receive full remission until much later into the protocol. It felt really good to hear those statistics. I started to feel like myself again. I continued with this schedule for nine months and because of my success with the drug treatment, I was placed in the next protocol which was the maintenance protocol. The maintenance protocol lasted for another nine months as well. Also, because of my success with the chemotherapy drug Cafrfilzomib, I only needed to take the Dexamethasone and Revlimid moving forward during the next round of treatment.

I continued on the maintenance protocol for nine months and was signed up for an additional nine month cycle. I spent three challenging years combating this deadly disease at the NIH. I’m here to tell you, I thank God for the opportunity. It was a success. Fast forward to 2021, I’m happy to report that I’m still in full remission. I connected so well with my team of doctors at the NIH, I followed a couple of them up to New York. They know my situation better than anyone, why change doctors now. I travel to New York Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center every three months for routine checkups.

You must have faith. You must have patience and you must convince yourself that you are strong. There are days where you question it all, but don’t every give up or give in. You are so much stronger than you could ever believe. Say a prayer every day and mean it. Know that God will guide you through. If there’s a bible verse, poem or even an inspirational song; Hear it, say it or sing it. You will be heard. There is always an answer. One of our favorite artists is reggae/blues singer Corey Harris. There was a song that my wife and I would play regularly during my time in treatment called Daily Bread. Here’s the chorus: “I got sun – to light my road; got love, to lift my heavy load; got a roof over my head, forever thankful for my daily bread”. Check out this clip of Corey Harris signing Daily Bread live in concert.

Corey Harris sings "Daily Bread" Live - YouTube

Thank you, Lisa for your many blessings you have given to this world. Your journey, like mine, has just begun. Thank you for being a tremendous friend to me and my lovely wife Sybil. She has given me more joy and happiness than one person can stand. She’s my love and had to carry the heavy load and burden during this crisis of mine and now yours. Now that I have great health once again, I feel that my light is brighter than ever before and can light the road on our continued journey ahead, and the most important thing, we are forever thankful for our daily bread.

In love and power! We are with you! Stay strong and hold on to God’s unchanging hand!!

Sincerely,

One Survivor to the next!

Sherman