I have been diagnosed with Stage 3 Multiple myeloma

[n2nsanity]

Good luck. You got this, no problem. With some good meds and Vicki there by your side, you'll do just fine.

[beepbeep]

Pre-testing is complete. Found that he has a sinus infection and have put him on antibiotics for it. Waiting on other test results that could take a week and half to get back. He's doing rather well, considering they put another hole in his butt (bone marrow biopsy).
He is resting for the next few days before getting his peripheral catheter put in his chest next week. This is where they will pull his stem cells and administer all of his treatment as well as return his stem cells after the high chemo dose.
Updates will come as anything noteworthy happens.

[Ninja Performance]

Got my results from last Monday. Mspike has dropped from 0.5 to 0.25, IGA up from 528 to 667, Bone Marrow Biopsy 5%-10% Plasma cells (meaning 90%-95% good marrow and 5%-10% cancer cells, I was 85% plasma cells when diagnosed a year ago)

These are great numbers and pretty darn clean to go into the Stem cell bone marrow transplant. Last month my mspike had jumped from .2 to 0.5, I attribute the drop to getting back on high doses of Curcumin again as I had backed off due to cost down to 4 grams per day. I am back to 12 grams per day.

On another note, our housing costs have doubled. We were supposed to go to the housing on campus as part of the Johns Hopkins transplant center. It's just for transplant patients and even though it's downtown and connected to the hospital it's only $80 per night. Even though we are on the waiting list, they are at 100% occupancy and we are going to have to check in to a public hotel to be close to the hospital. Needs to have a kitchen and needs to be CLEAN so we are looking at $150/night for about 45 nights, maybe longer. Yeah, that's $6750. Ouch....

-Chris

[green-lantern]

That's good news Chris......except for the lodging.

[AdamVR4]

...We were supposed to go to the housing on campus as part of the Johns Hopkins transplant center. It's just for transplant patients and even though it's downtown and connected to the hospital it's only $80 per night. Even though we are on the waiting list, they are at 100% occupancy and we are going to have to check in to a public hotel to be close to the hospital. Needs to have a kitchen and needs to be CLEAN so we are looking at $150/night for about 45 nights, maybe longer. Yeah, that's $6750.

There's gotta be a chance that one of the rooms on the JH campus will open up, right?

[beepbeep]

They called not 30 minutes after he posted...a room has opened up. YAY!!!!!!!



Good news is good.

[green-lantern]

Awesome!

[Granny]

Just a little bump here.
I want to encourge everyone to please chip in to help Chris and Vicki with a small donation.
10$...20$ It all helps!
I've always looked at it as I bought them lunch or helped with gas.
Just think about it...there are hundreds of us here.
Together we are strong!
30 of us buying lunch for a month. I think I can give up one day of McDonalds to help.

[beepbeep]

We are all set to start the high dose chemo tomorrow morning, with another dose on Sunday and stem cells reintroduced on Monday. EEEKKKKK!!!
Overall, things are going well. Chris is starting to lose his hair from the chemo from the 11th of this month. Just little bits, but still coming out.
We're both feeling a little scared, but super excited to finally be HERE!!! Thanks to everyone for the support, the donations and the love. I'll let you know how it goes next week, after a day or two after he gets his stems back and see how that's going.

[beepbeep]

And the stem cells are back in!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Chris came through the reintroduction really well, though he is still fighting the nausea from the chemo over the weekend. They have him on 3 different anti-nausea meds and they seem to be keeping things at bay, though just barely. He's also super tired, but his spirits are really good overall.

It will take a few days for his blood to bottom out before it starts rebuilding, so while we've passed through the big hurtle (of having the cells harvested and reintroduced), he still has a few more days of feeling pretty crappy. But, like many of you know, Chris is awesome and will bounce right back. I just know it!!