Ryan Scofield’s Story: We’re All in this Together
Ryan was a marathon runner when diagnosed in 2010 at the age of 35. He joined the IWMF Chicago Support Group and found the help he needed from others who understood.
Ryan was a marathon runner when diagnosed in 2010 at the age of 35. He joined the IWMF Chicago Support Group and found the help he needed from others who understood.
I was diagnosed at 53 (16 years ago) getting breathless learning to tap dance. My wife Alison noticed night sweats, tiredness and more dimwittedness than usual and thought it might be MS. I then came down with shingles and pleurisy.
I have had a long journey with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. I have had good news and bad news during this period, but the good news has been with me for over sixteen years. I hope it lasts a whole lot longer. I was diagnosed with WM in August, 1998 and started chemotherapy in September, 1998.
Several years ago, I was diagnosed with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (a mouthful), a rare blood cancer in the lymphoma family, closely related to leukemia. Chances of getting it were estimated to be about 0.03/1,000,000. There is no known cure. With those odds, I’d rather have won the Powerball!
David Young read about a new clinical trial, checked its availability and spoke to a principal investigator – all while having coffee one morning last year.
As a result, the lymphoma he was diagnosed with six years ago is now “pretty close” to being in remission.
It has been 8 years and 5 months since my husband Mark was diagnosed with a disease that the oncologist we had only met a few days earlier had to spell out.
If you are here at the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation’s website, then chances are either you or a loved one has also been diagnosed. We know how it feels when the world, as you know it, splits in half.
To put my story into context, you need to know that I had been a personal trainer and a fitness instructor for many years. So, I know my body better than most. I ate very healthily for the most part, and I was teaching a minimum of six high-intensity classes per week.
During the many years that I worked on Rituxan I can honestly say that the thought never crossed my mind that I would actually become a blood cancer patient on a Rituxan regimen.
Emil Parente is a WMer with a real past, and he is happy to share it with others, particularly those who are newly diagnosed. After all, Emil is special—he was diagnosed in 1980 at the relatively young age of 50 and is still doing well after all these years. He wants others with WM to take heart and hope from his WM journey.Emil Parente is a WMer with a real past, and he is happy to share it with others, particularly those who are newly diagnosed. After all, Emil is special—he was diagnosed in 1980 at the relatively young age of 50 and is still doing well after all these years. He wants others with WM to take heart and hope from his WM journey.
Diagnosed with WM in 2015 at the age of 70, in 2016 he published two books of poetry, he is writing his third book and has two more in mind.