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In 2011, Ruth was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Understanding that it is an incurable disease, she puts her best foot forward by starting each day with gratitude, receiving her treatment, and staying healthy. She cherishes the opportunity it is to wake up each day and choose her inner strength. This is her story and advice to others.

Additional resource: rogelcancercenter.org/multiple-myeloma

Transcript

Scott Redding:
Welcome to the Cancer Wise podcast, where we'll discuss cancer prevention, treatments, the latest in research, and important news around cancer brought to you by the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center.

Erica Reist Bass:
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. My name is Erica Reist Bass, and I am the Rogel Cancer Center's producer here at Michigan Medicine. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with an incredible woman, Ruth Williams, who is currently receiving care at Rogel for multiple myeloma. This conversation that you're about to hear is from when I sat down with Ruth in her home and interviewed her to be the feature patient story for Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month. You can find her patient story video on Michigan Medicine's social media platforms, as well as our YouTube channel, which will be linked in the description.

All right. So we're just going to do a little warm up here. So can you tell me your name, where you were born and how old you are?

Ruth Williams:
My name is Ruth Williams. I was born in a small place in West Virginia. It's called Gap Mills. I grew up on a 1500 acre farm. I'm 76, almost 77 years old. I'll be 77 in April. April. April 25th.

Erica Reist Bass:
What was your first thought when Dr. Pianko reached out to you about sharing your story? Because I think he reached out to you and then you filled out the form. So I think he told you, hey, like, there's some folks who want to help tell your story. Like, what was your first thought?

Ruth Williams:
Oh, you know, I told him that I was willing to do it, because if it's something that can be used to help others who have multiple myeloma, I'm quite willing to be a part of the work.

Erica Reist Bass:
What is it you hope people will walk away with, though, specifically from hearing your story?

Ruth Williams:
I would hope that they walk away knowing that even though it's an incurable cancer, that there's still hope that they can still live a good life or they can still enjoy activities that they do every day. They certainly can participate in just life itself. And just I would hope that just because you have multiple myeloma, that you don't see it as a death sentence. Because I've never seen it as a death sentence. Yeah. And I'm a firm believer that you can speak life or death through the power of the tongue. And I'm always one that likes to speak life.

Erica Reist Bass:
Okay. So I'm going to ask you two questions here. Maybe three that are all kind of similar. I'm going to ask you how your friends would describe you, how your family would describe you, and how you would describe yourself. So first, I want to know how would your friends describe you?

Ruth Williams:
I think that they would say that I'm fun loving, I'm organized, and I always like to be on time for events. I'm usually one of the first. They know that if if that if there's an event, I'm going to be there early and on time. They know that they can count on me to do my share of work.  Whenever we have something that we need to do. They know that I like to exercise. They know that I like to drive. So whenever we go to an event, I usually volunteer to drive because I enjoy driving and they seem to feel that I'm a good driver.

Erica Reist Bass:
So what about your family, especially your children? I want to know.

Ruth Williams:
Now that my children are older, they certainly respect me a lot more as a parent. You know, going through those teen years, that's the tough time. And so my daughter once told me that she thought that I was the meanest mother because I held firm on decisions that I made. And I would tell my children that is so important, as a parent, to set the example and expect children to live up to your example. And I didn't want them to be perfect, but I certainly wanted them to grow up to be successful and to be able to take care of themselves. My son told me that most kids come home from college for a good meal. He came home from college for a good conversation because I was a vegetarian at the time, and he didn't like the food that I cooked. So we still have good conversations. They see me as someone who's always going to be there for them no matter what. Mom's going to be there and she's going to make
sure that they are okay.

Ruth Williams:
And I think any parent would feel the same way. And they also know that I spoil the grandsons. Yeah, that was my job. I still enjoy my grandsons, even though they're teenagers. But I enjoyed them so much when they were younger, they traveled with me. I took them to swimming classes, skating... because I wanted to be an important part of their life as they grew up.

And I wanted to get to know them, and I wanted them to know me well as they were growing up.

Erica Reist Bass:
I really trust that that's happened.

Ruth Williams:
Yeah, and how I would describe myself?

Erica Reist Bass:
Yeah, Ruth, how would you describe yourself to somebody or to me? You know, we're still kind of strangers. So what's like your core characteristics?

Ruth Williams:
I'm a very strong willed person. I'm organized. I like things organized in a way that I know that things are going to be where I need them to be. I like exercising and staying physically fit. I enjoy driving. I don't like cooking. Cooking is not the high priority - it's not high on my priority list. I like try new things. I took some flying lessons because I wanted to experience, you know, flying an airplane.

So it was just a small plane. So I took three lessons. Enjoyed that tremendously. I didn't realize that learning to fly a plane can be a daunting experience. I saw the steering wheel on the plane, so I thought that that's how you steer the plane and that's not the way - you steer with your foot. And as a person who considers herself a very good driver, when I was trying to steer thisv airplane down the runway, I was all over the place.

So I realized that I'd have a lot of work to do in order to fly a plane. I would really like to skydive but oh, we'll see how that goes.

Erica Reist Bass:
We talked about like how you start each morning and you mentioned the first thing you do once you get out of bed is make coffee... Can you just tell me about how you start your morning? Or your morning ritual?

Ruth Williams:
Well, I get up, I come downstairs, make a cup of coffee, eat a banana, take my meds, take my medication. I usually spend at least 20 minutes reading devotion time. You know, I'm a spiritual person. And so I like to always remind myself each day of my blessings, because sometimes we take things for granted.

So I always like to take time to thank my Heavenly Father for the blessings, seen and unseen, and just for being able to get up each morning and start the day. And once I have breakfast, I'm preparing to get ready to go for my exercise program.

Erica Reist Bass:
So hearing you describe yourself, you know, as independent and strong and everything, I want to know, did that change at all with your cancer diagnosis? Do you feel like at any point you didn't feel strong or you didn't feel independent or did it or did it only like kind of like fortify that for you?

Ruth Williams:
So I'm determined. I have strong determination. I was not going to let this cancer diagnosis ruin me, destroy me. I'm just not I wouldn't give in to it.

I wanted to stay strong and do whatever I needed to do to fight the cancer in my body.

Erica Reist Bass:
That's the only answer I think I could have expected from you. Can you tell me what type of cancer you were diagnosed with? And when?

Ruth Williams:
I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2011.

Erica Reist Bass:
And what made you choose Michigan Medicine at the Rogel Cancer Center for your care?

Ruth Williams:
Well, I started out with the the oncologist at Saint Joe's, Dr. Mackler Nicholas Mackler. I had been with him since I was first first diagnosed. The last treatment that I had, it stopped being effective. And so we had to look at the next step. So he asked me if I would be interested in being in a study, and particularly because the medication that he wanted me to take, POMALYST, the co-pay was so expensive and I knew that, you know, there was no way I could afford that monthly co-pay. So I felt that going into this study would be beneficial for me.

Erica Reist Bass:
How would you describe your experience working with Dr. Pianko and his staff? How has that been for you?

Ruth Williams:
It has been wonderful. I enjoy him. He's a wonderful oncologist. I really enjoy talking to him. He's a great listener, and I feel that I can say whatever and I feel he will listen. When I first met him and we started talking and I didn't know how he would take this - I said, you know, I'm African-American and you know, that African-Americans have some concerns about what has happened to happen to them in the medical field.

And he said, I'm very much aware of that. And I got a sense from him that he was quite aware. And I didn't say that to make him feel bad or anything, but I wanted him to know that that's a concern as an African-American in a study that I would be concerned about. And he did let me know that, you know, if I had any issues, any concerns, any questions or if I even wanted to get out of the study, that I could, so I appreciated his honesty and his directness and his staff.

You know, I've had a wonderful experience so far with them.

Erica Reist Bass:
Was he happy to also find out that you like to stay really healthy and active? I imagine that's really great for a doctor to hear.

Ruth Williams:
Yes, yes.

Erica Reist Bass:
So can you tell me what does being healthy and staying active look like for you on a daily basis?

Ruth Williams:
I think that, you know, with multiple myeloma, I think you can have bone pain and I've had minor, but I think staying active has helped me not to have a lot of bone pain.

I do have neuropathy. Oh, that's my biggest concern: neuropathy in my feet, but that's my biggest concern. So I try to just move to keep my body strong and fit and well. I joke with some of my friends. I said, I can remember a time when my mother would get up in the morning and

Erica Reist Bass:
How would you describe your experience working with Dr. Pianko and his staff? How has that been for you?

Ruth Williams:
It has been wonderful. I enjoy him. He's a wonderful oncologist. I really enjoy talking to him. He's a great listener, and I feel that I can say whatever and I feel he will listen. When I first met him and we started talking and I didn't know how he would take this - I said, you know, I'm African-American and you know, that African-Americans have some concerns about what has happened to happen to them in the medical field.

And he said, I'm very much aware of that. And I got a sense from him that he was quite aware. And I didn't say that to make him feel bad or anything, but I wanted him to know that that's a concern as an African-American in a study that I would be concerned about. And he did let me know that, you know, if I had any issues, any concerns, any questions or if I even wanted to get out of the study, that I could, so I appreciated his honesty and his directness and his staff.

You know, I've had a wonderful experience so far with them.

Erica Reist Bass:
Was he happy to also find out that you like to stay really healthy and active? I imagine that's really great for a doctor to hear.

Ruth Williams:
Yes, yes.

Erica Reist Bass:
So can you tell me what does being healthy and staying active look like for you on a daily basis?

Ruth Williams:
I think that, you know, with multiple myeloma, I think you can have bone pain and I've had minor, but I think staying active has helped me not to have a lot of bone pain.

I do have neuropathy. Oh, that's my biggest concern: neuropathy in my feet, but that's my biggest concern. So I try to just move to keep my body strong and fit and well. I joke with some of my friends. I said, I can remember a time when my mother would get up in the morning andshe'd sit on the side of the bed and she'd sit there for a while and I would say, Mom, why areyou sitting there?