Today didn't get started as planned. We arrived at the neurosurgeons office only to be told that he was called into emergency surgery that could take most of the day. That left about 2 1/2 hours to kill before the next appointment.


When we arrived for the next appointment, we were told they had us on the calendar for tomorrow. Excellent! They said they would call the nurse and see what could be done. Long story short, we were able to go ahead with the procedure, we just started about an hour late, still much better than having to go back tomorrow. The doctor had planned on performing biopsy's on both hips, but everyone felt she got good enough samples that only one side was necessary.

Prior to the procedure we had a lengthy discussion regarding my status, planned treatments, etc. Because of the occurrence of the new lesion at L-3, and the continued activity at T-12, Dr. Hart believes I have "declared" and now have multiple myeloma. My blood work continues to look good, but with the negative bone marrow report and spinal activity, she's ready to say I have myeloma. She's ready to start a systemic (chemo) treatment plan pretty quickly. We discussed a second opinion, which she's completely open to and has helped with recommendations. She's willing to wait on the chemo a couple of weeks until the second opinion is complete.

A couple of other things. The pain in my leg has gone away since I started taking steroids again. Since this type of cancer is treated very well with steroids, it's possible they may stick with just steroids and not do any radiation. Also, the fact that the tissue sample taken from L-3 appears to be different from the original sample in C-4 has made the doctors step back a little. The words that were used were: "it's very weird", and "it's one for the ages". So once again, just when we thought we might be on a track that everyone agreed on, my "uniqueness" comes out and we need to figure out what's going on. Dr. Hart's supposed to call tonight to give us some information on the tissue samples; I'm sure if they really are different, that may change treatment plans.

I've gotten used to rolling with the punches, my chin's still up, and we'll just take it all a day at a time.

Again, thanks for all your prayers and support! We love you all!