Met with Barlogie this morning. Within an hour I was having another bone marrow biopsy. I'm not sure I have any hip bone left; but I'm so used to the procedure that I took it without a hitch. The med techs only said, "what are you doing back here? Why is he doing this?" With me, it seems its an integral part of restaging my disease. Either that, or they're coming out with a new jigsaw puzzle---reconstructing Dan's hips.
Not a lot of info to work off during the exam with Barlogie, as I haven't had any testing in a few weeks, so not much new there. I am recovering well from the hospitalization; the blood counts are gradually coming up and the infection index going down. Based on some IGG numbers (3200) and M protein number (2.4) I think I've had a moderate response to this latest chemo--it just took awhile to show up. Anything that will reduce the tumor load for the transplant is good. Barlogie wants me to have some time to recover from the hospitalization and the chemo, which I'm interpreting as perhaps another week or so without any treatment. We see him again next Tuesday.
After I recover I'm pretty sure we will be going into transplant with the Beam treatment--9 high dose chemo drugs administered over 5 days. He says it is the best treatment they have for resistant disease and has optimism about its effectiveness with me. No second transplant. If it doesn't bring me into complete remission, then he would hope it would lower the cancer levels enough that we might squelch them with further pharmaceutical treatment.
The days continue to feel very long (8 hours at the clinic today) and the boredom with a life centered around treatment keeps me thinking of how much I love Colorado and the incredible number of friends we have waiting for us to return to our life there. We love you all and can't wait to see you.
Dan
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3 comments:
Dear Dan,
Glad to hear that you are doing better and that the doctor is giving you a few days 'off' before the next big hurdle. You'll get there, slowly but surely.
Spring has sprung in Paris, blossoms everywhere outdoor cafes so crowded you can't find a table -- I wish you and Suz were here! Bises, Sigun.
DAN'S MARCH MADNESS SCOREBOARD
DAN INFLUENZA VIRAL PNEUMONIA
2 0 0
DAN'S SOON TO BE SCOREBOARD
DAN CANCER
3 0
Hey Dan,
Regarding the last post, I had a scoreboard all set up, but when blogspot posted the comment it changed the spacing. My attempt was to say you beat the flue and pneumonia, and soon you will beat the cancer. Good health, my friend!
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