Tuesday, Feb 17. Arrival in Little Rock.
Wednesday, Feb 18. Get the apartment (more on this below) set up and shop for all the special things I'll need (there will be a huge run on Purell hand sanitizer at the Little Rock Wal-Mart).
Thursday, Feb 19. Surgical installation of the chemo port, and a few pints of blood sucked out for new baseline tests (what's wrong with the ones they did two weeks ago? Hard to imagine...but these people loooooooove their tests).
Friday, Feb 20. We see Il Doctore.
Saturday, Feb 21. Treatment formally begins. I receive my first anti-Myeloma agent...a test dose of Velcade, administered via an IV push. BB's studies have lately looked at the initial response to this test-dose as another indicator of high vs. low risk. Now my gene array is such that even if the Velcade doesn't make it better, I will still be low-risk, so I'm not very concerned about that. I'm pretty sure I will begin oral thalidomide and dexamethasone on this day.
Sunday, Feb 22. Whoop it up in Little Rock.
Monday, Feb 23. They dig into my hip and take more bone marrow (they made a little bit of a stink about my anesthesia demands but, frankly, too damn bad), and then a test dose of Melphalan will be administered, again via IV push. My first time willingly ingesting poison! Whooppee!!
Tuesday, Feb 24. Should still be feeling pretty good. Myeloma cells wondering what's up, probably...
Wednesday, Feb 25. They will take another chunk of marrow out of my hip, and then voila, the chemo pump gets turned on. The four chemo agents are given via continuous drip over four days. I'm on thalidomide and dex daily, and velcade is administered every few days.
Side effects start to manifest here.
Sunday, the drip stops and my blood counts begin to plummet. Hopefully the myeloma is knocked for a loop, too.
We're still looking for an apartment -- we thought we had one but it was taken by another Myeloma blogger!!!!! :O Hopefully we will get that sorted out soon.
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Glad to hear a schedule is in place! Hey, I ran across this on the abta.org site: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/02/green-tea-and-t.html Hope you weren't stocking up on green tea!
ReplyDeleteHey there,
ReplyDeleteThis is great. I love that you have a plan and it sounds great. I'm going to call you/Jill about being helpful. Also sorry I wasn't there during your blues, but I do think of you every day and have confidence in you and everything you're doing. BTW do you happen to know/like the band needtobreath? They may not be heavy enough for you but I've been enjoying them lately and though a musical guy such as yourself might enjoy them too.
BIG HUGS, Amy
Just out of curiousity, I want a full report on what "whooping it up
ReplyDeletein Little Rock" turns out to be. Sounds like
they roll the streets up in that town at 7 pm.
:0)
Do your best to eat frequent, small meals. Even just have some pudding or crackers if that's all you can manage. I'm proud to say that I never missed a meal during my auto SCT. :)
ReplyDelete