And so it begins

Tuesday February 14, 2012
Lithia Springs Park site #13

We spent most of the week-end reading up on
the treatment options for Multiple Myeloma
and getting information ready for the ‘second
opinion’ appointment on Monday
at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. 

The mood was a bit somber. 
David said he felt like he was going down the rabbit hole. 
He is a bit tired but otherwise seems physically fine
though sad and apprehensive about the end
of what he has always felt has been his good health.

Monday was an all day medical marathon. 

At 9am he went to the Moffitt Cancer Center for a blood draw. 
At 10am he was scheduled to meet with Dr. Shain
for a second opinion on the tests and diagnosis
although there is really no doubt about the diagnosis. 
We were really interested in whether Moffitt
would have an alternate treatment plan.

10:00 came and went as often happens in doctors’ offices. 
10:45 Dr. Shaine came in, concurred immediately
with the diagnosis, talked about the program at Moffitt
and their slightly different way of administering the same drugs.
He discussed his treatment plan and the Center’s
Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

We were out of there by 12:30
and would keep the afternoon treatment appointment
at the Florida Cancer Specialists with Dr. David Wright.

And then the treatment began.   

At FCS there was another blood draw as
would be the first part of every treatment appointment.
So today we have two sets of numbers and
two different labs within about 6 hours
of each other to compare. 
That’s a good thing.

 
They did an IV drip of 20mg of Decadron
This is once a week.
and an injection of 2.4 mg of Velacade. 
This is twice a week.
He will begin the daily tabs of 25mg of Revlimid this evening.
This is every evening.

He’ll be going in for treatments every Monday and Thursday
for two weeks and taking the pill every night for 14 nights.
Then a week off of everything and start over again.
After two cycles, they will reevaluate and determine
how many more cycles it will probably take
to make remission and the transplant possible.

He may move all the treatment to Moffitt at
some point since they will do the transplant.

We got out of the office just in time to hit 5:00 Tampa traffic. 
Not a great way to end an already long and tiring day.

Tuesday dawned and David felt fine. 

Maybe even better than fine given that Decadron is a steroid. 
He was thinking this wasn’t going to be so bad.
Dr. Wright had told him many patients had no side effects
and could expect to continue living their life as they had been
through at least the early weeks of treatment.

 

So when he felt great this morning, David was of course totally in agreement with  Wright’s ideas and  went about creating for himself (and for me as an additional beneficiary)
a great vegan scrambled breakfast.

which we ate outside on the picnic table.

 

Check out this no oil “home fry”.

Afterward we took a walk over to the spring.

I really wanted to get in the water. 
I love water.  
Can’t ever get enough water.
And this is 72 degree water all year round!

 
David not so much with the water.
So he didn’t come even in shorts let alone a bathing suit.

 

Pretty soon the fish were coming up to check out my feet
.

And that’s when David rolled up his jeans and went wading!

Of course he has bigger feet,
so they ditched me and went right for his toes.

While I was enjoying myself in the lovely spring water,

David was doing this…….






and this……

I know he didn’t think I’d post these
BUT
I
DID!!!!

Guess this is what he was practicing up for – the long armed shot

Now you’d think this had been a great day, and so did we
until around dinner time.   
But that’s a story for the next post.