We interrupt the current programming……………

Monday January 13, 2014
Myakka River State Park,
Sarasota, Florida

 

………………for this not so cheery note.

 

We’d clearly gotten too cavalier in assuming that the initial test results from David’s 18 month visit to Moffitt Cancer center were all we needed to consider before announcing things were fine.   So you read in my post “An Easy End to a Very Nice Year” that the tests from his December 30th blood draws showed him continuing to be Myeloma Free.  That’s what they said.

David has routine blood tests every month.  But every quarter more extensive tests are done and on Friday January 3rd his hematologist/oncologist called to say that his M Spike was no longer at zero but was now at .5 indicating that he had relapsed only one year after being declared in remission.   The average remission period after a stem cell transplant is 3 years so we are pretty discouraged that he went through so much for such a short remission.

He continues to feel fine just as he did before they diagnosed him.   This Friday he will be going back in to Moffitt for a bone marrow biopsy and a bone scan to see if there has been any damage done in those 3 months from a totally clean bill of health to this latest one showing evidence of Myeloma.  Those tests will determine the next step in treatment.  

We don’t have much more to report than that and I’ve waited to mention it here until a second set of detailed blood tests were done to confirm that he has relapsed.   We are trying to carry on with life as if everything is fine since that’s how he feels and we are encouraged that there is at least one person we know who went 6 years with an M Spike fluctuating between .2 and.4 before further serious intervention was needed.  

But with this disease, every single manifestation is different and David’s initial diagnosis was high risk based on chromosome abnormalities.  It seems to be very aggressive. 

As you can imagine things are up in the air right now, but we are trying to be optimistic and continue on with our current plans as best we can.  We know things have changed but it really doesn’t seem that way since only the tests are different.  David feels no different.  How strange that you can be so sick and feel so well.  

January seems to be a bad month for David even though it’s his birthday month and should be one of celebration.  In 2012, his diagnosis came within days after his birthday and in 2014 his relapse came less than a week before it.   We think we’ll skip next January.