A Change in Plans

Sunday February 12, 2012

My last post was dated  January 31. 
I’m always a little behind,
actually make it often a week behind, 
since I have to write the blog, add pictures etc.  
Don’t know how folks manage to do theirs the very next day
but try as I might, it doesn’t seem to happen.  
However, because of what has been going on here,
I’m skipping ahead for now to bring this not
so pleasant news.  I’ll be back to what else we’ve
been doing in the first 11 days of February after this post.

As some of you are aware,
David had been contacted by his doctor in Charlottesville
about some routine blood work he had done
before we left in December.  
The doctor saw some out of line numbers
and asked David to contact a hematologist,
which we did while we were at Hillsborough River.

Dr. Wright of Florida Cancer Specialists did some more tests
and based on those results determined
David should have a bone biopsy.
By that time we had left Hillsborough River
and moved on to Oscar Scherer State Park.
We drove back to Tampa, an hour and a half, to have that done.  

When our time at Oscar Scherer ran out,
rather than go on to the Everglades as planned,
which would be too far away should we need
to go back to Dr. Wright,
we returned to Tampa to await those results.

They came in  and the diagnosis was multiple myeloma with a 75% involvement. 
We are quite shocked as David has no symptoms. 

More tests.  This time chromosomal.  More waiting.

While waiting in the Tampa area, we kayaked, biked, ran,
spent time with good friends and awaited results
of a more intricate cytogenetic technique
for looking at chromosomes
known as a FISH test.
This indicates how aggressive this cancer is.

That test came back Tuesday and shows his
myeloma to be aggressive.
As a result,  he will have a longer
course of treatment to hopefully get into remission.
If he reacts well to the drug cocktail and
they can get him into remission, he will need a
bone marrow transplant from his own cells.
If not, he will need a transplant donor.

Treatment aimed at remission begins tomorrow.
This includes an IV of Velcade, and two pills,
Revlimid and Dexamethasone.  The
schedule of pills and doctor’s visits is
quite involved so I won’t bother you with it.
But it will take potentially 6 months
depending on how he reacts to these drugs.

Where to stay in this area that is as
inexpensive as possible has just moved
up on the ever lengthening list of things
to be dealt with.

We are trying to go on with our life as usual since as of now,
he does not feel badly in any way.
The only sign of illness is continuing weight loss.

But needless to say we are reeling from this totally unexpected shock
and dealing with its multiple medical appointments and crippling costs.
At this point, we have no idea what this will mean
for our future and full timing in the long run.

I’ve kept blogging through this
progression of bad news  which has been
controlling our minds for weeks.
But I haven’t mentioned it until we knew the full scope of the illness.

I intend to keep this blog as best I can.
I want a record of what we are doing and have done together.
Most especially the fun parts.
But this is our new reality, part of our life now.
However sad it may be for us both,
this too is part of our story.