About Jim Wilkins
I was born January 22, 1953. I am married to my wonderful wife and caregiver, Kathy. I have two sons, Jimmy age 29 and Joe age 28. I worked for the State of Ohio and retired in March of 2002. At age 49 (much like the song “Live like you were dying”) , on my 25th wedding anniversary, August 20th, 2002, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Pretty much like the song, we sat and stared at the ex-ray. Left the doc’s office and went to Starbucks to sit and stare at each other and try to figure out what to do next. After hitting our knees for guidance from our Savior, we decided to go to Eugene, Oregon for a family meeting with both sons. Once telling them and arriving back in Ohio, we met with the surgeon that would be doing the verteplasty. Dr. Rey was a great surgeon, well known in the area. He came into the office in his cowboy boots and told us how it was. We made the decision to go for it. And it was set up for October 15, 2002. Needless to say, this sounds like it happened quickly to anyone reading this. We really were at wits end, after internet research, we did not want to wait that long - we wanted the surgery immediately. As it worked out, it was fine. But each day waiting seemed like an eternity. The myeloma had shown up in the Liver, the Brain, the Ribs (one was broken), my shin bone on my right leg and a major mass in my neck. The cancer had eaten the 5th vertebrae and was chomping away at 4 and 6. The cancerous cells made up 90% of my body.