‘Almost Dying’ from Cancer Taught Me 7 Life Lessons
In 2002, I twisted my hip leaving my office after work. It didn’t stop hurting for months, but I mostly ignored it. After a year passed and it had only gotten worse, I finally saw my doctor.
When I went back for the MRI results, he closed the door to the examining room, sat directly across from me, and said, as professionally as he could, “There is a lesion on your hip.”
“A lesion?” I said. “You mean a tumor?”
“Yes,” he said.
I was 38 years old, pursuing a promising career in journalism, married to a woman I loved, and the first-time father of a 7-month-old daughter. And with that single syllable, I was diagnosed with an incurable form of blood cancer called multiple myeloma — and was told I had 18 months left to live.
But thanks to revolutionary new treatments for my illness that have been developed since then, that was more than 20 years ago. It’s not a stretch to say I’m something of a medical miracle. Cancer isn’t something I’d wish on anyone, but at the same time, almost dying has taught me some hard — but valuable — lessons about how to live a happy, meaningful, and regret-free life.
