Friday, March 13, 2020. A day Debby Adkins will never forget.
She had just been diagnosed with multiple myeloma after seeking care for unexplained back pain and anemia. The next day, the country shut down because of COVID-19.
Still reeling from the diagnosis, Debby pressed her doctor for a prognosis. Eventually, she was told three to five years.
“I didn’t understand how much he couldn’t know until we could see how I would respond to treatment,” she says. “With the shock of the diagnosis, I convinced myself that he was just being kind and that I probably only had a year to live.”
So she began putting her affairs in order.
Six years later, Debby is still very much writing the next chapter.
A team she could trust
Debby was referred to New England Cancer Specialists by Catherine Gaynor at Greater Portland Health. From her first visit, she says she felt respected, heard, and cared for.
“From day one, and all the way through my six-plus years with cancer, I have been treated with respect and compassion,” Debby says. “I was given all the information I needed to make decisions. I never felt rushed during appointments.”
Even when the staff were busy, they made time to listen—not just to her medical concerns, but to her as a person.
“In essence, it felt like I was with family.”
Her treatment journey included setbacks. A planned stem cell transplant was ultimately abandoned when doctors couldn’t collect enough stem cells. Years later, while preparing for CAR T-cell therapy, a tumor grew close to her spinal cord, leaving her unable to move her legs.
Instead of receiving CAR-T as an outpatient, Debby underwent back surgery, followed by the treatment. Complications kept her hospitalized for two months. She then spent another two months in rehabilitation, learning to walk again.
She went home in January 2026 using a walker.
But she kept moving forward.
With physical therapy, Debby gradually regained her strength. She began walking independently, started driving again and, just recently, got back on a bicycle.
“I was successful!” she says.
Next goal: getting back on her paddle board.
A future in progress
Debby credits her New England Cancer Specialists team—and their collaboration with a multiple myeloma specialist at Dana-Farber—with helping her navigate an ever-changing treatment landscape.
“Everyone at NECS puts the patient first,” she says.
Today, neuropathy remains her biggest challenge. But Debby has learned not to compare her journey with anyone else’s, to ask for help when she needs it and, perhaps most importantly, not to assume she knows what comes next.
Her grandmother used to say, “Try not to worry unless you have to.”
It’s advice Debby wishes she had followed more closely.
Because on March 13, 2020, she thought she might have only a year left.
Today, she’s riding a bicycle, planning her return to the water, and looking forward to whatever comes next.
“You never know what’s around the corner.”
