November 30, 2009 Big Boy Haircut

It was an exciting day for me as I actually paid for a haircut. It had been since May, before I went into the hospital, that I had a professional lower my ears. Julia has been doing a good job of trimming but it was time for the plunge. I’m sure you will get a kick out of where I went. It is called “Floyd’s Barber Shop” and is reminiscent of where I would get my hair cut as a kid. Just four chairs and two barbers. These were real barbers, not twenty-something hairdressers with blue and pink hair. I even got a lecture as to why teenage girls breasts are getting bigger. Per Floyd, it is because of the hormones we are feeding chickens to get more white meat. Silly me, I thought it was silicone.

On the medical front, the last week has been a bit of a whirlwind. Julia and I met with Dr. Mikhail on Tuesday and got a bit of a mixed bag of results. My cancer cell count is up slightly, from 5.98 to 7.24. I wasn’t too excited about that since I was expecting a cure. Still better than I had two months after the transplant, so nothing to get too concerned about at this point. If we start seeing a trend going in the wrong direction, it might be time to get that rosary out again.

The other not so pleasant news was that my creatinine was up significantly. It jumped from 2.2 to 2.8 which is as high as it has been since I started taking the original chemo. Again, not the end of the world, but something to watch. The other thing that jumped out was my blood pressure. It was in the 150/90 range which is probably causing my kidneys to act up.

I spoke to Dr. Hogan, my kidney guy, and he suggested that I check my blood pressure three times a day and report back to him tomorrow. Over the weekend the pressure was up and down, but it definitely spiked when I got to work today. Imagine that, work causing your blood pressure to climb. Not to worry, as Dr. Hogan is sure that he can give me something that can get it back in shape without any side effects. In the mean time, I am trying to get a little more exercise and hope to take off 10 pounds. In the past this has helped me out quite a bit.

On the positive side of my results, the full body scan came back very good. It was hard to say that I had any damage directly tied to the multiple myeloma. This means that my body is doing a good job of getting my bones back to normal. So much for my excuse that I can’t lift anything over 10 pounds. Only problem is that I have babied myself so much, I can hardly lift anything over 10 pounds.

The other good thing is that my blood looks very good. Some problems areas have been cleaned up and my hemoglobin is back to normal. That is the first time I have seen that in a long time. So all in all, it wasn’t a bad trip to the doctor, just not a good as I had hoped.

Since this last weekend was Thanksgiving, it really gave me the opportunity to think about where I am in life. I really think we as Americans take too many things for granted. We probably don’t appreciate all that we have. We live in a land of plenty when even the poor would be looked upon as prosperous in some countries.

I guess I am just lucky and feel that way to still be here. If it wasn’t for my family physician, my oncologist, my nephrologist and all of the wonderful people at the Mayo Clinic and hospital, I might not have had the opportunity to enjoy the turkey that Julia made on Thursday. I have found that I have some of the best friends/relatives in the world. My life may not be as I would have designed it right now, but I am so thankful for the life I lead and the friends that I have. Make sure you appreciate all that you have been given and don’t take anything for granted.

November 9, 2009 The “F” Word

One of the things that we have always stressed with the boys is a willingness to share. We have not always been successful with our approach, but at least we have always given it the old college try. This week, however, Jason somehow shared with his dear ole dad.

A week ago, Jason started feeling just a little under the weather. Then on Monday night he had the pleasure of food flying out of him in both directions at a velocity a great deal higher than he would have liked. We gave him Pepto Bismol and told him to get better. I’m not sure if Pepto ever works but it still gets used in our house like it was water from Lourdes. To his dismay, Jason only rented it.

Because he somehow managed to survive the JV football season and was called up to the varsity for the last regular season game, I felt it was imperative that he do everything that he could to make it to school so that he could dress for Friday night. Yea, I know he was throwing up, but this is football we are talking about. Hamilton is the number 16 team in the country and the opportunity to suit up and possibly get in a game would be a wonderful experience. The fact that I have a $30 bet with Justin that Jason will actually make it into a game before the end of the season had nothing to do with my motives.

To my (and Jason’s ) dismay, he had to come home on Tuesday and didn’t make it back to school until Thursday. Needless to say, he made it to the sideline on Friday but not dressed to play. One less game to win my $30.

As they say, God works in mysterious ways. I had not even had a sniffle since this whole cancer thing started. Chemo does wonders for the common cold, it seems. Well, I don’t think He liked the fact that I sent Jason to school just so he could play in a football game. That night I understood the wonders of sharing. Midway through the night, my stomach started to bother me a bit. By seven in the morning I was driving the porcelain bus. Later that day, I had to rush to the bathroom for the other reason.

If you add up the entire time I was out of bed on Wednesday it would not have reached 15 minutes unless you count bathroom time. By the next morning I felt good enough to go to work but by 3 PM, I was headed home not to return until Monday morning. I found that if I laid around all day, I would improve, but as soon as I did much, I would start to head back down hill. So for the most part, the weekend was a do nothing, watch TV marathon.

I hate to bring up the F word, or flu for those of you that have lived in a news free zone for the last year, but my guess is that I had some strain. Jason took one for the team when he went to see the doctor and had blood drawn to see if it was bacterial, but that came back negative. He didn’t make it through football practice today and the coach sent him home after he threw up on the sideline. Not sure what it is, but it sure has thrown us for a loop.

Hopefully, we will both be completely back to normal in the next day or two as I have my first overnight business trip since my transplant on Thursday and Jason has his best chance of getting in a game this Friday. Don’t forget, I still have that $30 hanging over my head.

A week from this Friday, I have my blood taken for my first post remission test. I also get to have my body x-rayed in every position known to man. The blood work will confirm if I am still in remission and the x-rays will determine how my bones are doing. Hopefully, both show some improvement. Tune in for results just before Thanksgiving.