Day 15

My counts went up - yea! They're nothing approaching normal but they're getting better. Today should be my last day on antibiotic IV infusion, it has worked very well. I'm still a little swollen but getting better and I may not need a transfusion. Amy and Kevin headed home yesterday, out from under the Blizzard of 2010 but stuck in Dallas on their way to Denver - one step at a time. Rob heads home to Austin this afternoon. I'm hoping we get a release from the hospital to head home to sunny Charlotte very soon. I'm feeling a lot better than I felt on day 7, 8, and 9 and recognize that it will take about 3 months to get back to normal.

Day14

I'm at home since day 11 at Barbara's. They sent me home with a bag of pills to take, including antibiotics for my ecoli bacteria. I went for a check-up yesterday. My arms and ankles are swollen and I have a rash on my chest and back due to an allergic reaction to the oral antibiotic I'm taking. So they switched me to an IV antibiotic and I have to go into the hospital for a 2 hour infusion over 3 days. It already seems to be working better. Also, my numbers went down and not up yesterday, may need a transfusion tomorrow. The doctor said this is a normal occurrence and nothing to worry about. They will go up, just need to keep fighting the fight.

Day 10

Merry Christmas everyone. I just got up and I feel pretty good, maybe today is the day to begin to turn the corner. We'll see what the numbers tell us in a couple of hours. Thank you Lord for seeing us through this, it couldn't have happened without your help.
They identified the bacteria in my blood, it's ecoli and we have it under control. My release date should be tomorrow. They'll give some oral medication and then it's just recovery time over the next couple of months.

Day 9

Merry Christmas eve to one and all. My temperature spiked to 101 overnight, so we're doing more antibiotics and have added blood as well as platelets to the mix because my blood pressure is very low. The blood counts are still way, way down but should start recovering over the next couple of days as my stem cells kick in. Raise a glass of wine to toast you're families, they're the most precious people in the world.
I met with Dr. Weisel and he indicted I have an unidentified bacteria in my bloodstream. If it doesn't resolve, I may have to be on IV antibiotics for the next 10 to 12 days. If they can put a name to it, I may be able to go on oral antibiotics. Here's praying that they figure it out. I have nightmare visions of what Angela,my sister in law,went through.

Day 8

I ran a temperature today which got as high as 103. So they pumped me full of antibiotics. They got the temperature down but will do some more work on me tonight at the apartment. I feel much better this afternoon than I did this morning - like death warmed over this morning. I expect that my numbers will start coming back up some time soon.

Day 7

Well, they cut my Lovenox shots to one a day because my blood counts are so low. Maybe today will be the bottom of this process and we'll begin the climb back up the mountain. I'm optimistic but very tired. I spent the afternoon with John Hughes yesterday, it was good to see John Boy.
We just got our blood counts back, they are going to give me platelets to tide me over. I may have reached my nadir as my WBC is just 0.2 but it could go to zero over night. From there the road to recovery is a few more days. I may be out of here by the weekend.

Day 6

We began Lovenox shots, two a day, one at the hospital and one at the apartment administered by Joanie. She practiced injecting a banana before she tried my abdomen - a very slippery proposition. It worked out well, so far so good. Pierre arrived yesterday, it was very good to see him. He looks fit and refreshed. I hope I start on the upward spiral so I can spend some time with folks outside of the hospital setting.

Day 5

Just having breakfast, cereal and a banana and some water. We ran into another bump in the road yesterday. I noticed that the left side of my face was swollen when we were at the hospital, the nurses got concerned and sent me over for a Doppler Test. So now I have blood clots on both sides of my body, yea, the first one is still there. Their sticking me with Lovenox again. Other than looking like a victim of a Mohammed Ali whooping, I am doing ok.

Day 4

I just got up and took care of the morning rituals. Today and the next two days are the days when the rubber meets the road in this first set of treatments. First thing that will happen this morning is they'll take my vital signs and the vampires will get a complete blood count through blood extracted from my PICC line, a device attached to a vein in my arm. They'll monitor my platelet counts and give me blood, O+ if I need it. Were any of you contacted for blood for me? Hackensack is fairly empty because of Christmas. We had the cancer care center and the nurses pretty much to ourselves yesterday. Today we'll move out to the waiting room on the 4th floor of the medical plaza building and watch some football if they'll let us do that. God has been good to us in this process, thank you.

Day 3

It's day three and I'm retaining H2O again so my weight is up by 12 lbs. and they are pumping me full of lassic just like the horses at the Meadowlands. I never knew what it was used for before now. My ankles and wrists are swollen but my blood clot appears to be gone.
So is all the rest of the hair on my head. John Murphy, a friend, and I would take a wonderful picture right now. We both have the same landscape on our upper deck.
Our attitude is good and the nursing staff in Hackensack is helping us through the fight.

Day 1

We had a visit from Patty and Margie this morning. It was very pleasant to have visitors. Dr. Donato stopped by at 3PM. She confirmed that I'm doing very well and went over the near future course of events. Tomorrow should be the same as today, Day 4 I'll get a shot of Neupogen which will spike my baby stem cells a bit, but on Days 5, 6, and 7 my blood counts will bottom out followed by them coming up prior to my release from this prison. Patty and Joan are out at the Paramus Mall divesting of some treasure for Christmas nephews and nieces with an occasional adult thrown onto the purchase process.

Day 0

It's day 0 because that's what it's called in hospital parlance.
We got reacquainted with six million of my old baby friends. It took about an hour to put them back into my bloodstream. I hope they're setting up a reunification party with my bone marrow where they'll hatch a plot to kill the multiple myeloma cells.
Needless to say I feel pretty good. That's mostly thanks to my best friend, Joan. She's been my anchor in this storm and every other opportunity for the last 35 years. She finds a way to land on the positive side of every one of life's challenges. When I wanted to start my own business, she not only encouraged me, she worked while I fulfilled my dream and ours. She feels the same way about Kevin's Runway Pilot business. She's not just a cheerleader, she speaks to every pilot and airline person with whom she comes in contact. She firmly believes in a positive outcome for my illness. Who am I to disagree, Joan has mentored us to success for over 35 years.God blessed me and every one with Joan, she's fun, outgoing, and travels life's highway with a glass that's always half full, never empty. I love her with every breath I take.

Day -1

It's the day before the transplant, the day of chemotherapy. Joan and I just got up, it's 6AM and we're due at the hospital at 8AM. I don't know when I'll be able to post again, it depends on how I feel. Thanks to all of you who have been walking through this forest with me. I'll post as soon as I can.
It's 3:30PM, I had my chemo from 12 to 1PM with lots of ice chips from 12 to 2:30, so far so good - thank you God. I'm being IV hydrated and had diuretic via IV as well. I'm also drinking water by the gallon and going to the John about every 15 minutes. I record the volume of my deposit and post it on a grease board so the nurses can record it to my record, generally about 450ML, I think, per deposit. If I was a two year old, I'd be proud.

Day 145

It's the eve of the beginning of the transplant process. When we met with Dr. Rowley and Kelly Kobbe on the 7th, Kelly went over the process in great detail. It was daunting to me, to say the least. Tomorrow, I'll get a one hour infusion of melphalan. During the infusion and for one hour afterward I'll be chewing on ice chips to help prevent mouth and throat sores, they'll also give me a specialized drug to help prevent the same thing. Melphalan is a particularly effective but nasty bit of chemotherapy which will clear out of my system for the purposes of the transplant within 24 hours but will have effects for the next several months.. It will empty my bone marrow and immune system in preparation for the transplant (rescue) on Tuesday. They are concerned that I'll have the ability and energy to eat and retain food. They'll also have me on a variety of anti-nausea medications with an added something or other for constipation or dirrarhea. Some transfusions may also be necessary during this time frame (type O+).
I pray that God gives me the mental and physical strength to get through this in good shape and also help Joan as she will have to be hauling me back and forth between the hospital and the hospital provided apartment. There's a prayer my mother used to have us say when we were getting ready for bed every night that keeps bouncing around my head. We would kneel by the side of our bed and say this prayer before turning in, I'm sure most people have heard it:

"Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take."

Sorry to have such maudlin thoughts but this is the final step in this part of the journey and I'm a little distracted.

Day 144

I've had a little bit of trouble with my Lovenox injections. My lower abdomen looks like a combat zone. It's red and black and blue on both sides of my navel. We called Dr. Rowley last night because of the side effects and the fact that I was running out of real estate for my next injection. He ok'd me to stop the injections. My chest is not swollen, my vision isn't blurry, and I feel ok so he said yes to the stop of the injections. We are going to the hospital tomorrow afternoon for the installation of a PICC line on my left side.

Day 141

We went to the vascular lab at Hackensack yesterday so they could image my neck and right arm to confirm or deny a blood clot. They confirmed the blood clot so there's another small bump in the road. I've been put on Lovenox, 80mg twice a day, injections administered in my lower abdomen by me at home. I don't know what impact this will have on the transplant schedule but I do know that I have to get rid of the blood clot. I'm concerned about putting in a pic line while I'm on Lovenox, a blood thinner. I'll talk to the folks in Hackensack when they call my to schedule my pic insertion and schedule my hip MRI.
The schedule for the transplant will slip by one day and begin on Tuesday, the 14th. The pic will be inserted on Monday, the 13th. we'll have to discontinue Lovenox on Sunday night and restart it's use on Monday night.

Day 139

Today we meet with Dr Rowley to review the data so far and decide on next steps after the Autologus Stem Cell Transplant (ASCT). I'm eligible for a clinical trial which is a cocktail of nasty drugs in heretofor untested combination. I don't feel good about going that route since the only result that I can see with chemotherapy of any kind is the buying of some time if it is successful. There's no cure along that highway. The second proposition is a mini-allogeneic stem cell transplant with donor cells from my brother Edward. There is a potential cure at the end of this process but there are potential hazards also. It is a high risk process with a curative potential. This is a maybe, it depends on what type of riverboat gambler I am. The third possibility is a tandem ASCT, another ASCT.It may yield a longer survival while we pray for a cure.These are the realities of MM.
One thing that has happened over the past several days is that my beard has stopped growing. So I haven't had to shave. So I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that chemotherapy provides a temporary cure for the common shave.
We just got back from Hackensack and our meeting with Dr. Rowley. He went over all my options except the mini-allogeneic and he examined my catherter which has been causing me some pain. My neck is very swollen and it turns out I have a blood clot and he had to rip out the catheter. They couldn't put in any blood thinners because of the hole in my chest. I have to sleep in an uprite position tonight and I have to go in to the hospital tomorrow for a Doppler, whatever that is. If I wind up short of breath tonight, I have to go to the Emergency Room. We also discussed the pain I'm having in my left leg at the balljoint and hip. They're going to do an MRI on that leg. So, it looks like I'll have a very busy rest of the week.

Day 135

Hey, We're on sabbatical from hospital care. We meet with Dr. Rowley on December 7, 2010 for a review of all of the data so far. We'll decide what the next steps after the transplant are at that time. There are several options. In the mean time We're just in recovery mode from everthing that has gone on thus far.
I'm feeling both good and positive. With all of the research that's going on with blood cancers I'm hopeful that we will progress to a cure or at least that we're on the road to a cure. We're staying positive and are greatful for all of your support, prayers, and good wishes.