Our Everest

Mount Everest is Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal subrange of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow height) of 8,848.86 m (29,031.7 ft) was most recently established in 2020 by the Nepali and Chinese authorities. The Tibetan name for Everest is “Qomolanma, Holy Mother.” That friends, are exactly what I refer to as my cancer as well ”Holy Mother!”

My attempt here is to compare having cancer or my Holy Mother, Multiple Myeloma to climbing Mount Everest. Let’s just see which one is tougher to conquer. Any guesses?

They say Everest attracts up to 890 climbers per year. Of that number, approximately 1%. Only 310 people since 1922 have died trying to summit or decline the mountain. Multiple Myeloma attracts up to 32,920 patients per year with a death rate of 12,410 or 35.53%.

At Everest there are stages of the climb. Just like in cancer, we have staging. Let’s compare:

Everest vs Multiple Myeloma

Base Camp vs MGUS

Camp 1 vs Smoldering Myeloma

Camp 2 vs Stage 1

Camp 3 vs Stage 2

Camp 4 vs Stage 3

Summit vs Remission

Decent vs Refractory Disease

Both have routes to take as well. You choose a route for climbing based on cost, your guide package and experience, and which season you are starting. In cancer, you choose your route based on what type of cancer, stage, precision medicine, meaning therapy geared to a certain genomic makeup of cancer.

Everest (compared to) Multiple Myeloma

Southeast route Nepal (compared to) Chemotherapy Immunotherapy

Northern route Tibet (compared to) Radiation, Protein Inhibitors, and Stem Cell Transplant

The cost of mountaineering can be quite expensive. You must pay for gear, a permit, experienced Sherpas(guides), Sherpas to carry your equipment, transportation to and from Nepal, lodging prior to base camp, and transfers for travel. It can be anywhere from $65k to $200k. Keep in mind that people actually want to do this adventure. Now let’s compare cancer’s cost. Multiple Myeloma can also be expensive, except you do not need to pay $10,000 for a permit!

And, I don’t believe there are any Sherpas to carry my tumor burdens? The cost for cancer can be around $250k for a stem cell transplant. Another $80k for a bone marrow biopsy. Then there is the best part of this unwanted journey is the cost of chemo! Yep, you guessed it, maybe $18k for 14 pills. I am on chemo for two weeks then two weeks off. That means that approximately $216k just for outpatient chemo in pill form. No charge for me putting it in my own mouth. That is just for chemo, does not include steroids taken with the chemo, or immunotherapy which is currently an outpatient, IV or a quick shot in the abdomen if you are lucky enough to be on the Fast Pro list. If you are unfortunate enough to be outpatient IV chemotherapy, the cost continues to grow. You must add the cost of staff and facility expenses. Come to think of it, I guess you could call the RNP’s, PAC’s, RN. Nursing assistants, and volunteer staff at our cancer centers, our Sherpas! They take phenomenal care of us. You meet everyone at base camp, the first day of treatment. You get to know them and trust them to help you reach your goal of getting to remission or our summit.

Climbers face a window of seven to ten days in the spring or fall to complete their expeditions. Cancer never takes a season. It is all year round.

Let’s discuss the Death Zone. At the higher elevations of Everest, climbers can spend quite an amount of time in the Death Zone, (altitude of 26,000ft) or higher close to the summit. They face significant challenges here. Like the challenges, we face daily with side effects of treatments. We spend a significant amount of time facing this disease. Let’s compare once again, Everest to Cancer challenges:

Everest (compared to) Cancer

High winds, creating difficulty climbing (compared to) Neuropathy that makes it difficult to walk

Frostbite (compared to) Bruising easily/anemia/infection

Cerebral Adema (compared to) Chemo Brain

Low atmospheric pressure (compared to) Dizziness/nausea/fatigue/vomiting

Exhaustion (compared to) Exhaustion

Avalanches (compared to) Intense chills

Repeat Climbers (compared to) Relapsed/Refractory Disease

We all have these side effects throughout our treatments and are ongoing. Most of the challenges climbers have resolve after returning home if they survive the descent and the death zone. Let’s chat about the descent, which is for the most part the toughest in the expedition. It is most definitely hard to come down then go up. With cancer, we all treasure coming down or getting to remission. It is equally as hard to do but lasts for years as opposed to a climber decent of a few days.

One new thing, we cancer survivors deal with that is new to climbers is “bottlenecking”. In cancer centers today, there is a backlog of patients waiting for treatment rooms. Climbers are now facing a huge bottleneck in season. They may have up to a hundred climbers waiting to ascend. This happens when the weather turns bad, and people must wait at camp. Then it clears, and they all move at the same time. Imagine getting up to a certain elevation then having to wait? One thing cancer patients must learn is patience. You may have to wait up to nine hours when you receive a new medication. Then it might go down to five hours, then three hours, then fast track to ninety minutes. At least we are not freezing since we can usually scarf one of those lovely, heated blankets! We also may wait between meds when you have several meds in a single IV. I guess waiting as a patient might be easier than waiting in freezing winds and low oxygen.

In the end, I will let you decide which is tougher. Cancer by far is way more expensive. I don’t admire people that climb those highest mountains, especially those that are not prepared and think because they paid a lot of money, someone will get them up and back safely. To me, it is a danger you can avoid. It would be interesting to see how many cancer survivors have climbed Everest or the other highest six peaks. I do know of some survivors that climbed smaller mountains not needing Sherpas or oxygens and donate the money raised for charity. I applaud that. Perhaps that is a milestone or something on your bucket list you need to check off. For me with neuropathy ridden feet will stay firmly planted on the ground of Hillman Cancer Center. I do hope that I will get to travel more and check off places on my bucket list.

Until then, find something funny to share with those you love.

Best,
Cathy