WHY MAYO CLINIC?

Greetings from Kadoka, South Dakota! (That's so fun to say!)  We’ve traveled two full days and have one more left to go. Tomorrow we will arrive at Rochester, Minnesota, home of the Mayo Clinic.  Hanna got so bored crossing South Dakota that she pulled out the Atlas and determined that our trip will entail driving through 42 counties in six states during 21 hours of driving time.  That is a new county every 30 minutes.  (Only a CPA would do that sort of analysis.)

Frivvy is traveling with us. There is no way we could leave him behind, he is such an emotional support to us both. When either one of us are down or not feeling good he can tell right away and snuggles up next to us and puts his head in our lap. He is an incredibly sweet dog.



So, why have we chosen Mayo Clinic?  Why Mayo Clinic?


When searching for treatment for my cancer in 2018, we researched multiple cancer specialists and medical facilities and Mayo was always ranked near the top. So, when no local doctor could diagnose Hanna’s neuropathy, we felt it was time to call Mayo Clinic. After having been diagnosed by a local doctor while we were waiting to hear back from Mayo Clinic, we had other Multiple Myeloma (MM) cancer survivors repeatedly tell us how important it is to have an MM Specialist managing care. We quickly found that there are no specialists in the Spokane area. 

A specialist is defined as a doctor who does absolutely nothing except MM/Amy. Our oncologist in Idaho is very sharp, is a Graduate of the University of Washington, and we love him a lot.  But out of his 1,000+ cancer patients, only 25 have MM.  He's very good and awesome, but not a specialist by his own admission.  At Mayo Clinic there is a team of 27 MM Specialists. The team meets often to discuss all the various cases and issues they are working on.  A doctor Gertz volunteered to take Hanna’s case. Dr Gertz is a world-renowned MM specialist and frequently speaks at seminars for other doctors. His specialty at Harvard Medical School ~40 years ago was MM and it still is. It’s all he does. We feel we are in vey good hands. Dr Gertz and our local oncologist, Dr Gay, have coordinated well the treatment plan. At our first visit to Mayo Clinic in late April we were amazed by their efficiency, their patient service, their thoroughness, and their wisdom.

Miracles we have experienced so far:

 Having Dr Gertz as our doctor. We feel he picked us because of the rare way Amyloidosis displayed itself by attacking Hanna's nerves instead of the typical organs.

 We feel the key to beating cancer is early detection. We feel it a blessing that the Amyloidosis was diagnosed early before it spread to vital organs.

 Hanna loves to go on walks with Frivvy and me and was depressed and disappointed when she could no longer do that due to her neuropathy. Then one of our good friends literally gave us a Pride Jazzy Power Wheelchair Scooter. Now she regularly goes on our walks with us and even has taken Frivvy on walks by herself.

  

Thanks for your prayers.


Hanna’s Inspirational Two-Bits:

I’ve learned that asking “why” bad things happen in my life isn’t a helpful question. Just looking around for a minute at other people’s lives it’s clear to see that most people don’t deserve the bad things that happen in their lives.

One of my heroes, Neal Maxwell, faced a more dire prognosis from a blood cancer. During his treatment, he suggested that rather than “Why?” better questions might be: “What is required of me now?”, or “If I am humble which personal weakness can now become a strength?”

These are the questions I now ask each morning.

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