Grand Island doc has lived 18 years with incurable cancer; now he's an expert in what ails him

[Omaha Steve]

X post from GD.

http://www.livewellnebraska.com/health/grand-island-doc-has-lived-years-with-incurable-cancer-now/article_098a26de-4cfc-11e5-8697-5339699099b7.html


Posted: Friday, August 28, 2015 1:00 am | Updated: 9:56 am, Fri Aug 28, 2015.
By Tracy Overstreet / World-Herald News Service

When Grand Island cancer doctor Dr. M. Sitki Copur read the July 10 edition of the ASCO Post, the trade publication for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, there was a familiar face on the cover — his neighbor, retired Grand Island family practitioner Dr. Jim Omel.

“Dr. Omel is not an oncologist, but he is a myeloma expert,” Copur said. “He is in the loop. He knows everybody, not only in the United States, but in the world, including the International Myeloma Foundation; he knows every single person who is dealing with myeloma as an expert.”

Omel smiled at the label of “expert” on myeloma — a blood cancer that nests in and degrades bone.

He smiled at the label primarily because he felt blessed to have become an expert — having lived 18 years with the disease after being told in 1997 that he would live but three.

FULL story at link.



A cancer patient himself, retired Grand Island family practice physician Dr. Jim Omel has written and published numerous articles about cancer research, including a front page article in the July issue of the ASCO Post he is holding. The publication is published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

[woodsprite]

1. Best wishes for continued health to Dr. Omel. I wish my dad had been so lucky.

He was diagnosed back in 1990 and lasted one year.