Small But Mighty
Mrs. Nauman’s birthday is November 12.
She never really thought much of her birthday before, but since November 2013, it has become a personal achievement. She is getting older and that’s a good thing.
“It means I’m still here,” she said.
Michele Nauman was diagnosed with three extremely rare diseases a little over three years ago– multiple myeloma, b-cell lymphoma and amyloidosis.
Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer found in white blood cells in bone marrow. B-cell lymphoma is a blood cancer in the lymph nodes. And, amyloidosis is a rare, incurable disease that causes a buildup of "sludge" in the organs.
It’s rare to have one of these diseases, let alone three.
“We decided to take this week-by-week, day-by-day as a family,” her daughter, Kristina said.
I have been a friend of Kristina’s since I was in tenth grade. We both attended Penn State and lived together our senior year. Our families are friends and our little brothers played basketball together.
I knew Mrs. Nauman had cancer, but I didn’t know what kind. I didn’t know the names or the severity of her diseases. Kristina always said her mom was doing just fine.
“Some people, when you ask them how they are doing will tell you exactly how they’re doing– every ache and pain and hang nail. That’s just not my personality,” Michele said. “I’ve noticed when people ask how I’m doing, my first reaction is always, ‘I’m fine.’ Even if I don’t feel fine, it’s just not my way to dwell on all the negative stuff.”
The Naumans have three kids out of college, working full-time jobs and living on their own– Melissa, William and Kristina. Their youngest, Michael, will finish his degree at Penn State in 2018.
Her husband, Bill, takes care of Michele’s day-to-day needs and acts as a liaison to all of his children. He retired just last year and he’s also had to deal with the decline of his mother’s health and her passing this past September.
Kristina said her and her siblings’ relationship with their dad changed just as much as their relationship with their mom, more than people may realize.
“I gained a lot of respect and admiration for my dad seeing how strong he was dealing with everything,” she said. “He was the one who was there every single day.”
Michele said her health condition has forced her kids to mature emotionally faster than your average 20-something-year-old. It has made the whole family appreciate the time they spend together a little bit more. Not because they are afraid those times won’t happen again, but because they’ve made it to that particular moment.
“The memories and the time we share together are things that they’ll always have whether I’m here or not,” Michele said.
In the past three years, the Naumans have visited Spain, Hawaii and a very special trip to Pasadena for the Granddaddy of Them All. She’s watched Michael graduate from high school, William and Kristina graduate from college and Melissa earn her master’s degree.
“I have things I need to be around for,” she said, simple as that.
Anyone that knows Michele, whether you met her before or after her diagnosis, knows that she is one tough cookie. When it comes to her health, she attributes her determination to her mother.
When she was in junior high, her mother was diagnosed with lupus. It is not her mother’s nature and it’s uncommon in the Filipino culture to talk about illness. Her mother prides herself on her strength and never likes to show weakness.
Michele understood how difficult things were for her mom back then when they started to communicate over Michele’s health.
Her mom told her that when she was diagnosed, she was determined to get better. That stuck with Michele because that is how she feels.
“If I could be that out-of-the-box with my diagnosis, why not beat the statistics and be that out-of-the-box with my recovery,” she said.
She didn’t talk too much about the specifics of her illnesses. I had to look up exactly what they were. Instead, she’s focused on her treatment and her journey forward.
The most significant part of her treatment was a stem cell transplant in October 2014. It took her “as low as she could go” in terms of weakness. It reduced the levels of each of her conditions and has kept her stable since.
Now, she does dialysis at home every night. She will need this indefinitely because the amyloidosis causes kidney failure. Which brings her to the goal for 2017– a kidney transplant. Michele and Bill are looking into the risks, process, qualifications and, of course, the likelihood of a donor.
“There is no cure and I’ve been told that from the beginning,” Michele said. “But I’ve also told my doctors that I don’t want to know any of the statistics… I don’t want to know any of that stuff because I don’t plan on being a statistic. I plan on beating this to the best of my ability.”
The journey of her health has re-emphasized the things the Naumans have always considered important– family and memories. They have little-to-no complaints with Michele’s condition because she is constantly moving in a positive direction. That’s all they can ask for.
There is one thing.
“I miss physically feeling strong,” she said. Her amyloidosis has made her lose strength and stamina.
I sat in front of her and thought about how ironic that sounded to me. It makes perfect sense. Anyone would feel weak when fighting the three diseases her body fights day in and day out. But the one word that came to mind as I looked at her– this cute, little Filipina woman wrapped in a big red poncho– was strong.
“Things happen for a reason,” Bill said. “You can react two different ways, negatively or positively. We chose to react positively because we believe it is a choice.”