Putting it all into
a new perspective.

International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation
3932D Swift Road
Sarasota, FL 34231
941-927-4963
info@iwmf.com

"The Good News About Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia" Shakespeare wrote "Nothing is either good nor bad, but thinking makes it so". The bad news about WM dominates our attention, but is there also not "good news"? Many patients have commented to me how diagnosis with WM has radically shifted their perception of life, adjusted priorities, heightened sensory acuity, brought a jumble of activities into sharp focus, and in retrospective, improved the quality of life. How about you? How has your WM changed your life for the better? Over the next six months, we will be collecting stories and experiences which illustrate the "Good news about WM". If you have thoughts on the subject and would like to contribute, then I encourage you to send your story to me at MichaelEL@pacbell.net.

"End Notes" is about putting it all into perspective.

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What Now? Stories of Coping and Courage

Into each life some rain must fall, as sure as the sun must shine. There are good events and bad events and things in between. We’ve all been there; the joy, the pain, loved ones die, and the bad guys live on, we win and lose and often draw even, in this voyage called life.

Millions of people each year are told that they have a deadly cancer, and that the end is close, often very close. It’s stressful and frightening, and made the more so when it’s a rare misunderstood disease for which there is no known cure or clear prognosis. Of all the cancers known to medical science, lymphomas are the only cancers which are growing in numbers and for which the cure rate has not statistically improved. Unlike a tumor, which you can remove or zap, blood cancers are systemic, hard to find, harder to treat, and frightening.

Yet, for some of us, the lucky and plucky survivors, life does go on. There is no scientific evidence that intestinal fortitude or mental attitude improves the odds, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Your attitude matters, your attitude determines your altitude.

"Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring, Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling; The Bird of Time has but a little way to Flutter, -and the Bird is on the Wing" (Rubaiyat).

Herein are tales of heroes and heroines, patients and caregivers, the strong brought to their knees to rise again, to tell you how they found courage and learned to cope.

They are gathered here to share with us their secrets of how to live the good life, how to cope with a terminal disease, how to go on and make the very most what we all have, for now. One friend, after diagnosis, went on canoeing the next day, and saw a leaf drift by, speckled by sunlight, rocking in ripples, and realized it was the most beautiful leaf she had ever seen.

We are fortunate to have warning that life is precious and tentative, and the time to enjoy it is right now, right here. Many people never get the warning, never get a chance to live fully.

"Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, before we too into the dust descend; Dust into Dust and under Dust to lie, without Wine; or Song, or Singer and — without End!"

Michael Luttrell, Editor <MichaelEL@pacbell.net> March 2001

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