I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre disease in 2012 and chronic inflammatory demyelating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in 2013. But I learned that I actually had “POEMS” syndrome — a rare blood disorder related to multiple myeloma — at MD Anderson in January 2014.

After a year and a half of being misdiagnosed by other doctors, finding out that I had a blood-based cancer brought me a strange kind of relief. By that point, my peripheral...