Last Will and Testament

Nichols’s 1984 diagnosis of Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia, and prognosis of anywhere from five to ten years to live, brought monthly, sometimes weekly, chemotherapy treatments. ¹ Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia is an incurable blood cancer recognized in 1944 by Swedish doctor Jan Gosta Waldenstrom. ² Usually found in people over age sixty-five, macroglobulin, a protein or globulin with a high molecular weight, proliferates in the blood and infiltrates bone marrow and, potentially, the spleen, liver, and lymph nodes. ³ With an increased sedimentation rate, the thickened blood causes symptoms known as hyperviscosity syndrome, or high resistance to blood flow, including weakness, fatigue, visual anomalies, and bleeding disorders. Not all Waldenstrom’s patients experience all the possible symptoms, and that was the case for Nichols. He was weak and tired and felt bad much of the time. Toward the end, his vision was impaired.