Dan’s Victory

Time to add to my how things are going for me.
Last week I drove back and forth from here (Tacoma) to SCCA (Seattle Cancer Care Alliance) for the one year follow-up.
Monday - registration; blood draw - 16 viles; urine sample; start of 24 hour and three stool swatches at home (yuck); tests and photos to see if there was any evidence of  Graft vs. Host (GVH) Disease; and a bone marrow biopsy (marrow, bone, and skin samples).
Tuesday - Axial Skeleton (x-rayed my upper and lower arms and legs, hips, chest, neck) and an MRI of kidneys and liver, and an osteosurbey study (bone density).
Wesnesday - An oral exam of my teeth, gums and the inside of my mouth, and a pulmonary function test - different tests to check the health of my lungs,
Thursday - I was suppose to get some vaccines (as the chemo and radiation last year wipped out everything that the vaccines I had shot in my a year after my original stem cell transplant in June 2006), but my white blood cell counts were to low to do that at this time. Then I had a conference with the doctor and nurse about test result and I was suppose to see the pharmacist but that didn’t happen either.
Friday - I had to see University of Washington Eye Institute doctor to check my eyes.

So the result were kind of a long list - I recorded it all so I could write it all out later.
The bone marrow had grown a small amount (I hadn’t been on chemo for three weeks!) to 14% which was 6% in February
The MRI showed a new small lession at the bottom of my pelvis.
The beta 2 myenoglobulins (sp) was the same as previously.
The kymerism (Dick’s stem cells) have are now at 87% and 76% in the marrow itself
My iron is a little more than normal but not the bad (was told to keep takeing the multiple vitamin without iron_
I have no GVH (Graft vs. Host disease) which could have happened having put Dick’s stem cells in me.
The skin biopsy was fine.
The liver function test was good.
The creatnin level was 1.4 which is good but a little elevated.
The pulminary function tests (lungs) were all better than in August.
The dexascan showed a little bone loss and calcium, exercise and zometa will help that.
Cholesteral is fine.
Blood pressure is fine.
Sugar level is fine.
Thyroid function is fine.
The protate is fine.
Stool sample showed no evidence of cancer in the digestive tract.
The kidneys are slightly abnormal but fine.
The CMV is no longer in my syste (It was the cause of the 103.4 temperature jump that I was hospitalized for 3 days a few weeks ago.)
I will not be having the donor (Dick) lymphocyte done because that would give me a 20 - 30% chance of getting the Graft vs. Host Disease, and then I would have to fight two things instead of just the one (multiple myeloma). But at the same time will probably not get totally rid of the multiple myeloma without it with current therapies available.
I also asked about the gas burping difficulty I have had pretty much since all of this started and they don’t have any idea what is causing it. At least they are honest about it. They said I come from a weird family - I have this and Dick had problems after donating the stem cells and the shots necessary to do it of a lot of pain from areas that had previously been injured in sports. It took a few months to get rid of it. That they have never heard of either.

Well, quit a long list here, but those of you who are doctors and nurses this is probably the kind of thing you like hearing - and the rest of us don’t quite get it all!

Have a wonderful week - what is left of it anyway.

God richly bless this wonderful day You have made for all who read this!

Dan

DEVOTIONS FROM BESIDE STILL WATERS A DEVOTIONAL

Want to see a teacher explode?
Just try making a remark about working “only” six hours a day” or “only” nine months a year. If you are not injured, you’ll be quickly enlightened about what happens behind the scenes of the teaching profession — curriculum development, lesson preparation, conferences, grading, curriculum development, and much more.
Of course, that is true of almost any pursuit; a large portion of the work goes on behind the scenes. Behind every corporate report lurk weeks of research, writing, and empty in the coffeepot in the middle of the night. Behind every speech hide hours of scribbling, editing, and even declaiming before the mirror. Behind every clean house kneels a householder with a vacuum cleaner and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner.
It’s a mistake to assume that the only work that counts in work that is immediately visible. But I think I do that a lot with God. Either consciously or unconsciously, I evaluate God’s work in my life according to whether I can see progress or feel His presence. If I can’t, I often assume He’s not on the job.
But there’s so much about God’s work I can’t see — at least not until later. What feels like intense conflict may be His preparation for a new era in my life. What feels like spiritual dryness may be His strategy for drawing me close to Him. Ordinary events may actually be a series of sacred opportunities that I’’m too dull to perceive. In other words, I often can’t see what God is doing in my life — but that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening!
And I know all that — so why can’t I remember it?