A long Tiring day

after Monday when I had one appointment, today was a marathon that brought great news at the end of the day. Yesterday I only had to go in for a bone density scan of my hips and spine.

Today started early with my blood draw then off i went to see the dentist. The in addition to a discussion of how to take care of my teeth and mouth during this process, the dentist decided during her exam the the broken tooth that needed to be pulled before i got cancer still does and should be done now to reduce the risk of infection while my immune system is compromised. Oh well. then off we went to take classes. first a very informative class on food safety for transplant patients, then a class on home care during recovery. these were very helpful especially for Chrystal who will be managing me during all this...Pray for her strength in managing me! :)

next we went for our appointment with out PA and Nurse. after the routine check in and a needed culture from both ends to see I am carrying bacteria, the PA went over our lab and test results and discussed the treatment plan. Great news. myeloma cells 99% gone!, the MRI showed that there were no lesions in my bone which means myeloma has not affected my skeleton. what ever showed up on the xray was not confirmed by MRI. probably just a knot on my stubborn head. All this means that i skip one round of chemo and go right to the growth factor shots and cell collection. I see Dr Bensinger on Thursday to go over the plan, but as it looks now they will collect cells one week from today. Dr Bensinger by the way is MR MYELOMA doc at Hutch. Having him as the rotating doc right now is a God send.

Things are going to go fast and furious for the next week or so starting with having my Hickman don on friday then having growth factor shots every day for 4 days, then thy collect my cells every day until there are enough. the PA says probably 2 day. after that the tooth comes out before the transplant. I will do myu best to get something posted everyday but no promises. No post means I am just lazy or tired not that things have gone to crap. :)

on another note my firefighter union brothers came over today and installed some motion sensor lights on the back porch to provide a little extra lighting out back. once again a sign of the brother/sisterhood that we have in our great union. or maybe it's cause two of these guys were probbies on my engine way back when. Thanks again Pete, Rich and Lee.