By 2023, Jonathan Gluck had come out of remission from multiple myeloma for the seventh time. He’d endured a litany of treatments for this incurable blood cancer, including radiation, intravenous immunotherapy, and regular IV infusions since being diagnosed in 2003. Could a new treatment called CAR-T therapy be the difference? Read an excerpt adapted from Gluck’s book, An Exercise in Uncertainty.
I’m a relatively stoic person. I’m not easily overwhelmed by my problems. I’m not even particularly inclined to talk about them.
Well, cancer makes liars of stoics. Just as it attacks your body, it attacks your emotional defenses and doesn’t stop until it strips you of them. You want to put up a fight for nineteen years? That’s okay. Cancer is patient. Cancer will wait. It laughs at your perseverance. It mocks your stiff upper lip. It is amused by your courage. Eventually, it will break you. You may enter cancer as a stoic, but you will not leave as one.
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