Persevere -- April 13, 2008 -- Dreaded Visit

persevere

DEFINITION:
(verb) to continue despite difficulties

This was the Word for the Day on my Yahoo today… April 13, 2008


We had our visit today with the doctors. The VISIT we dreaded for weeks. A month, to be exact. Our last visit with an oncologist was April 15. We finished all the testing from last Wed to Monday. He even tested on Saturday. The good in all these visits – we met a lot of people with Multiple Myleloma. People? – wrong word – Survivors! We have heard great stories and we have heard good stories and we have heard the bad stories. From the meds, the pain, the remissions, the recurrences, the tears and most importantly, the smiles.

Yesterday we decided we were leaving for the weekend. We are going to Eureka. Jim’s sister is watching the animals. We decided we would go to either celebrate or cry in our beer. Read on…..

Jim does have multiple Myleloma.. It is cancer in the blood. The cancerous cells eat away the bone marrow and bone. He will start his first chemo treatment on Wed, May 28. I won’t go into the regimen, because we are still digesting it ourselves. He will get a port and the blood tests, meds and chemo will be done through the port. It will become his friend. This will eliminate the needle in the arm on each visit.

He will then have a large quantity of his bloods cells taken from his body. This will make his immune system quite low. Quite low… After he gets through that rough patch, his good cells they took out of his body and refurbished will then be placed back into his system. That will be the stem cell transplant.

That was the bad news… The good news we were blessed with is: there is one lesion around his neck/spine area, one on each shoulder blade area and 25 in his back pelvic area. YES, THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS. We have spoken with people that have 36 on each shoulder with recurring. We have spoken to people that are high risk and can’t do anything for fear of breaking a bone. The reports seem to indicate this is not the case with Jim. It looks like it is in the early stage. God pushing him off the roof was a blessing in disguise.

Oh, with that… he does have a fracture in one of his vertebrae that can be repaired with a needle injection of cement. They are holding off on that.

Another bad news…. UAMS is ‘out of network’ with our insurance, so the insurance will not pay for the transplant and probably not the high potent chemo drug he needs, which the drug is $1,000 a pop..estimated at around $10,000 a month. Isn’t that depressing? I haven’t told you the cost of the transplant.

We have chosen two members of our family to run interference for us, translate to our family members anything/everything that goes on. They will let anyone know if we just are worn out, don’t want to talk, too sick to talk or just trying to catch up on work. They are telling Jim he will probably be off work for 3-4 months.

These two people were with us all day today. They are strong willed, stubborn, listen to the facts and only the facts, reveal the facts and only the facts, aren’t afraid to ask questions and will protect their family till death. They will be our translators of Jim’s disease to our families and ward off any uneasiness anyone has about what Jim is going through. We chose Tommy (our son) and Chaundell (our niece). We are fortunate to have such strong people to help us. Tommy is a go-getter. Bull in the china shop. Chaundell is an RN and not afraid to get straight to the point.

What did Jim and I talk about when we got home??????? Work… how much we will miss…. What we have to do to get things in order for ‘work’… Can you believe it???? I can..

We are relieved about what the doctor told us today. I especially was afraid I was going to hear I was losing my best friend soon. Heck, I may go tomorrow… He will probably out live me.

I guess you want to know if we will be celebrating or crying in our beer…… “Celebrate goods times, Come on”…..

p.s….. We are looking forward to seeing Jim bald. We came up with a new biker name for him today. Chemosabe… Spelled differently than the Lone Ranger’s nickname… I just can’t imagine Easton, our 4 yr old grandson calling him that instead of Poppy.

I will keep you posted when I can… It will be a long journey… When I get the okay from Tommy and Chaundell, I will forward you their numbers. Please feel free to call Jim or me, but please understand if we can’t talk. It doesn’t mean we don’t want you to call.

Keep praying for more miracles.

Kathy Rice