Good News

I'm back home in Frisco again, and the visit with my transplant and myeloma doctors at MD Anderson went so well I am filled with peace. That alone is a miracle.

The other miracle is that my white AND red blood counts, along with my platelets are now back to normal. I've talked to and read about many people with suppressed immune issues. One young woman I met said it took her a year just to get her white blood cell count into the normal range. The doctors told me I'd EVENTUALLY see my white blood and platelets return to normal, but that my red would be much slower. Not so for me, since God is healing me.

While I was there, I met my research nurse on the 10th floor, where my treatment during the allogeneic transplant will take place. I was able to talk for a couple of hours with Ralph, who is in the tandem auto-allo trial. It was surreal talking to this man, sitting on the bed in his jeans and button-down. His coloring was awesome. He had hair. He just didn't look sick to me at all! We talked about his experiences with the allo, the auto and multiple myeloma. He was a marathon runner before cancer stopped him in his tracks. The allo, he said, has been much easier than the auto. But he did mention that a younger woman in the trial was having bad nausea (probably from the cyclosporine, which has a nasty smell.) Another cancer survivor (quite young, but with Burkets Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) joined us and we talked nausea for a while. The best tip I got for that was to keep a small amount of food in your stomach to avoid nausea. Everyone patient I met touted the need for food bars eaten in small amounts during treatment.

The other really important bit of news I received was that my research nurse and her team at MDA have reduced significantly the incidence of Graft Vs. Host in this trial. They simply do not tolerate it. And their percentages are much less than in the Italian study so far.

Everyone sees me as a very good candidate for the allo. And I feel as if I'll be in the best hands at MDA. And I feel as if God has made a way for me to do this. Whatever other concerns I might have--whether its caregiving or fears of feeling bad--I give those all to God. For He has given me the ability to feel peace about my next step and I have not had that AT ALL before.

Also, I have no protein spike. Just a .1 (what one doctor called a trace) m-protein. It is what Dr. Weber calls "a very good partial remission." But, as one of my other doctors said, the allo will knock that .1 right out. I know, even this, is part of God's plan.

As to timeline, at present we are looking at the allo beginning around May 30th. If this works for her schedule, Lisa will first go through some tests to make sure everything is a go. Then, that next week, she'll give her cells, which I will take immediately. The rest is fluids and close monitoring every day for the next few months.