Consent Day

Yesterday was my day-long visit to Dana-Farber.  It was a very long day.  I fell asleep 5 minutes after we started the drive home.

Overall, it was a very positive and encouraging day.  Dr. Anderson continues to be impressed with my rapid and complete response to the treatment.  He noted that it bodes well for my living a long life.  To quote him:  "I think, even with the myeloma, you will live as long as you would have without having developed myeloma."  That was excellent news!  Should I have told him that my paternal grandfather lived to 91 and my Uncle Joe lived to 95??  I always believed I would live as long as Uncle Joe.

My day started with an appointment with my transplant nurse Muriel and Dr. Anderson later joined us.  Muriel was very thorough and explained each day in detail.  The good news:  I may not be on a severely restricted diet for a year!  Eating processed food for a year was...unappetizing to me.  The bad news:  I probably won't lose the anticipated 15 lbs, but maybe only 7lbs.  I almost called the transplant off when I heard that!  Hey, if I'm going down that long dark road, I want to be accompanied by some good weight loss!

But seriously, after talking with Muriel, I feel better about the Cytoxan.  As long as I start drinking 2 liters of water a day, the side effects should be minimal.  The downside, though, is that I will be wearing a mask earlier than I thought.  I thought I'd be wearing a mask maybe after the stem cell harvest until I arrived at the hospital.  Unfortunately, the mask goes on August 5th, after the Cytoxan.  That means the following week I will need to work from home, not the office - definitely not in my original plans.  I can still go to morning Mass, though, if I sit in the empty front rows and wear a mask.

I also feel better about the harvest.  I don't need to sit perfectly still since they will be drawing blood from my Hickman rather than my arm.  I even feel a little better about the Melphalan.  I'll have a few days of no side effects - I might even make it to my birthday!  Then it goes downhill rather rapidly for a week.  Anyone ever swallow razor blades?  She said it may possibly feel like that as I try to down my 2 liters of fluid a day...and as I resist the urge to....never mind - it's  ugly.  Really ugly.  But a week later, I'll feel better :-)  I can make it through an ugly week! (would someone please remind me of that when I start to whine??)

After Muriel and Dr. A, I had a lab appointment.  Remember in my last posting I wrote "what would a day be without a lab test"?  Well, this was quite a lab visit:  26 vials of blood were drawn.  Yes, that's right, no typo - 26 vials!  Holy moly! (Holy moly?? That's lame.  Batman or Robin would have something much more creative to say).  As I saw the lab nurse walking toward me with the tray of vials, I assumed she was restocking her cart, but no, they were all for me. Every last one of them.  And she couldn't access my port, so it all came from my arm - and you know how my veins feel about that!

A visit with the social worker (she said it seems like we have a good support system. Thank you very much, to all of you!) and a pulmonary function test (Dr. Weil and your breathing CD helped me through this) and a bit of waiting around in between and we were done.  Start time at D-F:  9am.  End time:  4:30.  26 vials in-between = long day.

And now the counting starts.  T minus 9 days to 'mobilization.'  I'm ready!