June 1, 2023

The date on the Blog is Thursday, June 1, 2023 because that is when it was posted.  The events happened on Wednesday, but after the last appointment, we got in the car and headed halfway home.  Though I am writing this in the early hours of Thursday, I am writing it as if I wrote it on Wednesday.
 
Wednesday, May 31, 2023  Stem Cell Plan
     I thought I would write today’s blog more like a journal than most of the blogs.  I think you will understand why.  It is written as the day unfolded.
     Teresa and I made it to Rochester last evening about 11 p.m.  I had some stuff to take care of and headed to bed around midnight.
     With yesterday’s infusion and the extra steroids, I found sleeping more than difficult, which I have every one of the seven Tuesdays of chemotherapy treatments.       The two hours of sleep were longer than most of the Tuesday nights.
     Without question, there is a lot on my mind as daybreak brings the first rays of light into the motel lobby where I am writing the first part of the blog this morning.  Today will be a defining day as we get the news on whether I am a candidate for the stem cell transplant. 
     The day began at 6:40 with blood work.  I get stuck a lot and the “sticker” has a lot to do with the pain or lack of it.  I have written that some are quite Biblical, using the “seek and you will find” method.  Those are never welcome.  This one was a seasoned veteran.  After about a dozen vials of blood, I wondered if I was a pint low!
     Often when I get an IV or I am stuck for blood work, I think of Scott Martin.  He is a very difficult stick.  There’s a lot about Scott that I would take being like him, but not how difficult a stick he is.  Sometimes being thankful even in the midst of the pain helps.
     At nine we met with the doctor who will handle the stem cell transplant.  We couldn’t have asked for a better doctor than Dr. Gertz.  The session started a bit slowly, but as you listen to him, you know he really knows his stuff.  Reminded me of Larry Clevinger.  I could tell that nothing was going to get past by Dr. Gertz.
     Here is now what we know as succinctly as I can tell you:
     I am a candidate for the stem cell transplant.  The chemotherapy is working as hoped.  Not to bore you, but here is how Dr. Gertz described my situation, written as he explained it to me.
     “If you consider your bone marrow a garden, in your garden you have about 20% of weeds growing.  The chemotherapy is like weed killer, killing some of the weeds and keeping others from growing.  But it cannot kill all the weeds.
     At some point we need to harvest some good seeds from your garden and freeze them.  The next step would be to destroy everything in your garden with a massive doss of weed killer.  Then we will replant the seeds and hopefully the weeds we be gone and the good seeds will grow.”
     I thought that was a perfect lay understanding of the stem cell harvest, the massive dose of chemotherapy, and the transplant of the stem cells.
     The very preliminary schedule would be as follows:
     Continue the chemotherapy until the second week of August.
     Third week of August: final testing to be sure I am a candidate and that there is no infection in my body.
     Fourth week of August: Stem cell harvest
     First week of September: Massive dose of chemotherapy and stem cell transplant.
     Second week of September: Chemotherapy side effects and stem cells begin regrowth.
     Third week of September: Recovery hopefully begins to take place.
     This is all very fluid, especially three months out.
     After lunch we met with Dr. Leung who has been handling the chemotherapy.            The best news of that visit was that the chemotherapy regimen was working and will continue with one major change.  The number of steroids that I have been taking will be greatly reduced.  I guess we will see how my body responds to that.            Hopefully I will be able to sleep more than I have.
     Our final appointment was with a social worker who was a very sweet young lady.       It didn’t take her long to realize that emotionally I wasn’t ready to jump off a cliff. I had a great opportunity to witness to her of the sweet peace of Jesus that is in my heart.
     She gave us some information about lodging for the five weeks that we will be in Rochester and some contacts with their transplant team about handling the costs of the transplant that insurance may or may not cover.
     What I wasn’t too thrilled with going in, especially because it was later in the day and we wanted to head home, turned out to be a blessing.  Somehow that has happened more than once in this.
     I have given you information, but let me close this long blog with some insight into my head and heart. 
     What today did was to bring home in its fullness the seriousness of having multiple myeloma.  Though treatable, the treatment takes you to the edge and brings you back.  Handling the smaller dosses of “weed killer” has been more than tolerable.  Handling what lies ahead is something quite the contrary.
     I am confident that His grace will be sufficient.