In January, Marty, my husband, and I had been talking about retiring in Coeur d’Alene, ID and I came up to look at houses. After almost a week of looking, I couldn’t find what I wanted and was waiting back at the airport to leave home when I saw a new house on the market that I liked. I canceled my flight and went back to Coeur d’Alene to check the house out. Marty came up to see it and he liked it. They accepted our offer. We got an inspection done. Had the owners do a few more things, and Marty let people know at his work that he might be retiring March 15th.
I was at home in Fremont, CA packing and getting everything together for a garage sale. Marty’s back hurt too much so he wasn’t much help. Friends came and helped with the garage sale and helped with the sale of our car. We had a pick-up date for our furniture and packed items to be taken to our new home. I was going to leave Sunday, March 11 and pick up the keys to our house on March 12. The transaction was scheduled for March 15, but we were ready and so were the sellers, so my daughter got the electricity and water set up and my plans were to begin painting and decorating the house before Marty came up. Marty had planned to retire from work on the 15th and leave for Idaho the following day. I was so excited and everything was falling into place.
Marty’s back was still hurting, so the doctor had him go to a physical therapist and because he had a history of getting back pains from kidney stones, he scheduled him to see a kidney specialist. When he saw the kidney specialist on Friday, March 9th, she was worried that it could be cancer. He got an MRI an hour later. I decided to cancel my flight, We waited to hear from the doctor.
The kidney specialist called Marty on Saturday, March 10th. The MRI revealed that he had stage 2 Multiple Myeloma. Our world turned upside down. We had to back out of everything. Called our realtor to tell her we could no longer buy the house. We had til the 15th to do so. We called the moving people to let them know we were no longer moving. Normally there would be a fee for declining their service so close to them coming, but considering the circumstances they waived the fee.. We called our landlord to tell him we had to change our plans and wanted to stay in our rental. He was fine with it. We felt so blessed. Only God could align everything and His timing was perfect.
Marty knew he would need his insurance. Quickly he called HR and said our plans had changed and he did not want to retire. He was able to keep his insurance and as an employee, he was able to get his pay while on medical leave.
Multiple Myeloma is a cancer that weakens the bones and causes osteoporosis. His was working in his spine and fractured two discs. He had surgery called Vertebroplasty.
He has many people praying for him. Here it is May and he is making such progress that the oncologist told him he only needs to go in for chemo once a week (still two weeks on and one week off) and the bone infusion every three months.
As Marty approaches maintenance for his myeloma, we are still considering moving to Coeur d’Alene, ID. However, we are praying for God’s guidance and open to His direction. We know God has the best plan for us.
I am so grateful for everything falling into place. Marty’s doctor has been so happy with the way the chemo is working. I failed to mention that Marty spent 4 days in the hospital to help reduce his pain when he first saw the Oncologist. The bill was $48,000 but because he still has his insurance, he only had to pay his $10.00 co-pay. His surgery was $22,000 and he didn’t even have to pay his co-pay.
