Gettin' 'er Done!

Hi everybody!  I'm not quite as poetic or introspective as the persona Geoffrey has designed for me, but want to let you know what's happening from my own ten fingers.  Geoffrey and I met with the attending physician today.  He gave us the results of the tests I've taken for the past week and a half.  Blood counts are good, kidney & liver function are in excellent order.

After the chemotherapy I've had to date, the monoclonal protein (or M-spike:  a marker for multiple myeloma) is at 1.4, down from 8.9 when I was first diagnosed.  The amount of plasma cells in my bone marrow is 20-30%, down from 80% when I was first diagnosed.  While both those are positive results, it's not as low as the medical team had hoped.  Normal for both of those is below 1 for the M-spike, and 2% for plasma cells.

So tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m., I'll check into UW Hospital to begin the 5-day course of continuous chemotherapy mentioned as a possibility in the last entry.  We were told that this will result in the white blood cell count plummeting,  feeling sick like a bad flu, cause mouth sores and make my hair fall out.  The great news, though, is that it will also kill those plasma cells that are still too plentiful in my bone marrow.  On Saturday, the plan is that I'll start getting the growth factor shots to mobilize the stem cells!

After my blood counts recover the stem cells will be extracted then on to transplant.  When will that be?  Whenever my blood counts recover (date unknown, but the average time that takes is around 30 days).  Yes, it's scary.  But I'm glad that I can get this done now, rather than having a week or so to dread it.  It's not getting done as quickly as I had hoped or would like, but we're moving forward!  We'll keep you posted.  Geoffrey will attach a picture of me with my new no-hair-do when that happens.  Maybe even with the 2 of us!  So stay tuned!  Thank you all for your continued prayers and healing thoughts.  I so appreciate all of you.

Peace!