It’s been way too long since I’ve posted, but it’s been kinda crazy. My treatments are going fine, I’ve got the last treatment of this cycle tomorrow, and no side effects of any kind!

The crazy part is that last Thursday both my parents were admitted to the hospital. My mom had a rapid heart rate that the doctor said was like she’d been running a marathon for 3 hours. They got her stabilized, ended up putting in a pacemaker Friday and released her Saturday. She’s doing much better now, just a little tired. After my dad got mom settled and parked the car, he went up to mom’s room, started not communicating clearly and ended up passing out. They checked him out and his heart was fine. They decided he passed out due to stress, exertion, and low blood pressure. While they were doing the tests, however, they found some other things that didn’t look quite right that required some follow up. He’s had some kind of test run almost daily and had two more tests run today. We don’t have results from all the tests so there’s not a complete picture of what’s going on. He generally feels pretty good but doesn’t have much strength and isn’t eating much at all. He was discharged this afternoon and we got him home, so hopefully things will somewhat get back to normal!

Just a quick update. I started the 3rd cycle of chemo today and again everything went smoothly. The break off chemo and steroids isn't nearly long enough, but the cycles seem to go pretty quickly.
I'm still feeling good and looking forward to the end of this part of the treatment.

I finished the 2nd cycle of chemo last Thursday without any problems. The trip to the Siteman Center in St. Louis Tuesday was tiring if uneventful. It started with lab work - 15 tubes of blood drawn - at 7:45. Results were fine, the nurse said I looked like the picture of health. At 8:30 we met with Dr. Vij. What we learned was that he'd planned on me completing 4 cycles of chemo here all along before beginning transplant, and that the M-Protein didn't really matter, as long as none of the indicators went up dramatically. So I've got 2 more 21 day cycles of chemo, then I'll need to go back to Siteman for labs; get a week or two break; go to Siteman for growth factors to build my stem cells; have my stem cells harvested; then start transplant. The schedule works out for transplant to start the last week of September or the first week of October.

At 9:30 I had a skeletal survey - x-rays from head to toe. At 10:30 I had a chest x-ray and EKG. I didn't get any results of x-rays, but the EKG was normal. At 2:30 I had an RVG (heart test) where I got 2 injections then they took 3 pictures of my heart that took about 10 minutes each. Again, no results. Then at 3:30 I had a PFT (breathing test). I don't remember how many different tests they had me perform, I just know that I never realized breathing could be so tiring. At least I passed those tests!

So we thought the results of Tuesdays tests would determine if I was ready for transplant or not, when in reality it had be pre-determined I'd go through 2 more cycles. Dr. Vij explained that they've had more success with at least 4 cycles of chemo before transplant. At least now we have a tentative schedule and can do some planning, and since I haven't had an issues with the chemo, and there's a better chance of success, I'm good with it.

The 3rd cycle starts Monday the 20th, so I've got just a few days left of being off the juice!

I had the third treatment in my second cycle of chemo today and everything went well again. Lab work still looks good, no side effects, and I still feel great. They'll test my protein levels sometime after the last treatment in this cycle Thursday. If my M-Protein's 0.00 or better (it's been 0.2), then this portion of treatment will be over, and we'll look forward to the stem cell transplant portion of treatment.

We go to St. Louis Monday afternoon for a day of testing Tuesday to determine if I'll be strong enough to handle the stem cell transplant. I have no doubts about passing the tests, so we'll just need to wait for the results of the M-Protein to see when the transplant portion begins. I'd forgotten that the baseball allstar game is Tuesday in St.Louis, and we hadn't made any arrangement's yet for Monday night, but we got lucky and everything's set.

I had my chemo treatment today, but didn't have the long session I'd expected. The drug I thought I was getting that takes 2 hours to infuse, is supposed to be administered once a month. A month from the last time I got it will be next week. So everything went real smooth today, lab work was good again, and I was there less than an hour.

I don't know if it was a coincidence, but I had conversations with my doctor, nurses, and the manager of the clinics in the last couple of days about the mix up in filling the Revlimid prescription and some other issues we'd had. Today everything was ready when I got there and the session went as advertised before I started.

I still feel great, and I know it's due in no small part to all the prayers and support I'm receiving from everyone. Your support gives me just that more drive and fight to beat this. Thank you all!

Time for a long overdue update. My 9 days off of treatment went really well and towards the end of the off time I felt almost normal. Last Saturday we went to my parents house to do some yard work. I got tired easy, especially when I was in the sun, but I paced myself and took breaks when needed. We only spent about 2 1/2 hours working, went home, got cleaned up, then went shopping. I think it did me a lot of good to get out and actually do something that required some effort.

My second round of chemo started Monday and went well. I went in to work afterwards like normal, and felt great. There was a mix up on my oral chemo drug, Revlimid, so I won't start it until Thursday. I'm feeling really good right now, so maybe it's been the Revlimid that causes me to feel "fuzzy" sometimes. My longer treatment session is tomorrow, so we'll see how I feel after that. I'm just enjoying being "normal" while I can!