The Best Medicine

I’ve been getting the Velcade shot every two weeks. The side effects with it are increasing. I didn’t think I had neuropathy in my hands because they didn’t feel the same as my feet.

But when I complained to the doc (this time actually the top nurse / doctor’s assistant) that they feel generally stiff, achy, and longer, as they keep bumping into things, and so numb some mornings that I have trouble turning off the alarm, she said that’s neuropathy.

Also, the first moment after I get up from sitting, the first few steps are hard to get going. That’s neuropathy, along with the sand in the feet, socks bunched up in the shoes feeling. These side effects are increasing; not debilitating – but quite annoying.

The nurse was going down a list of questions and got to, “any change in appetite?” I told her I’ve been eating everything in site and was approaching maximum capacity. I told her I might finally have a T-shirt printed that reads, “SEX MAKES ME HUNGRY!” I suggested I might make good money if I print and sell them to old, fat guys.

She started laughing so hard, it appeared it was all she could do to hang on to my medical chart. She was rolling so well I didn’t think it would take much to push her over the edge, so I told her about the T-shirt I would print for guys like me who’ve had prostate surgery, “BETTER ERECTIONS THROUGH CHEMISTRY.” She laughed and laughed, bent over laughing. It’s so much fun to make people laugh.

My Nephew, John, recently took me to the LeMay Car Museum, it was Awesome

Walking Again

I’ve been to the Oncologist for my “three month after the stem cell transplant” visit. The blood tests came back showing my M-Protein is now 0.2. That number has been as high as 1.8 in January, and down to 0.5 after Chemo treatments, before the transplant.

My Oncologist said she wants me to begin taking a daily low dose of Revlimid. She said cancer patients taking this maintenance dosage have longer periods of time between transplants. I asked how many transplants I might look forward to. “Just one more,” she said.

“Bone marrow won’t support more than two. But,” she continued encouragingly, “If you get two or three years from this transplant, and two or three more from the next, there may be new treatments available by that time.”

I found that due to the peripheral neuropathy in my feet, I sleep best with my feet hanging off the bed, toes pointing to the floor. There’s no perceived pressure from the blankets that way, and little discomfort.

I’ve started walking to work again. It hasn’t increased foot pain, so maybe overall it’s good. I’ve added three daily doses of L-Glutamine to my Multi B Complex for the neuropathy.

I’ve been taking it for a week or so, it might be helping a little. I will have a moment here or there when I realize that I have not been aware of pain in my feet for a full minute or more. That’s a (painless) step in the right direction!

You can’t buy a duel altitude, multi-range color hair style like this!

Closer to Normal

Summer 2013 in Oregon is circling the drain. I took the box fans out of the upstairs windows and put the electric blanket back on the bed.

My summer was a paradox, creeping along unbelievably slow, moment by drawn out moment in the hospital and in recovery, but then I looked up and suddenly the summer days are gone!

I’m feeling closer to normal and farther from death; although I know it could be waiting in the next crosswalk. But, it could be waiting for anyone there and has nothing to do with cancer.

Working full time and ready for high water

I just had my six month visit with my urologist. He said my PSA (indicator for prostate cancer) is non-existent, that’s great. He said I’m halfway through the danger zone….. If the prostate cancer doesn’t come back within five years, it’s highly unlikely it will come back.

I doubled the dosage of my B complex vitamins and it does seem to be helping with the chemo nerve damage / pain in my feet.

My oncologist said next visit, three months from the transplant, they will test for cancer indicators. I thought, with all these vials of blood you’ve takenwhat have you been testing for?

We were clicking through TV stations the other night, looking for a reason to stay up ten more minutes, when I saw an eerily accurate representation of my new hair style: it was little Ralph Wiggum on the Simpson’s.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to identify with him for long because in the mirror I see little black seedlings sprouting among the wispy white survivor hairs clinging to my head. This could get interesting.

I remain, as always, thankful to God.