Nick's Myeloma Blog

I created this blog so that I, and others, can track the progress of my Multiple Myeloma and my efforts to combat it. I am blessed to have my family and many good friends to help me defeat this and if you are reading this, you are likely included in that group. Thanks for your support -- with it, I will beat this. So for your edification and perhaps even amusement, read on!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Day +5...and some thoughts on positive thinking

First, the mundane: the APN was right on the money. White cells cratered today...count is at 0.2. I think that means there are 20 white ce...

Monday, April 13, 2009

Day + 4: I am strong like bull...or am I?

So today was a good day. Other than being exhausted and continued GI issues, I felt pretty good. They took labs. It was peripheral (arm) b...

Recap of non-Easterly feelings

Call me what you will, but yesterday was no day to mock my fellow Man. Today, however, is. I'm overdue for a bit of local color. First,...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Day +3 / Happy Easter!

Yesterday was a non-event, marked by exhaustion and depleting white cells (about 1.3...not quite neutropenic). We waited over two hours for...

Friday, April 10, 2009

Day +1

Exhausted, so this will be short. White counts dropped from around 6.7 to around 2.8 today, expect neutropenia to set in tomorrow. Platelet...

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Day 0 - Transplant #1 finished!

Well, it was almost a non-event. We went into the seventh floor, they ran labs, and pre-medicated me with Kytril and Emend (for nausea) and...

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Day -1

That's what they refer to the day before transplant as. I'm not sure if tomorrow is Day 0 or Day 1, but today was definitely Day -1...

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Tuesday on floor 7...and sympathy for the Kurds...

Yesterday my friend Tom from business school arrived so it was the three amigos for most of the day, which was a lot of fun and continued to...

Sunday, April 5, 2009

So far, so good!!

I am pleased to report that so far, me and Mr. Melphalan are getting along just fine. I went to the seventh floor, checked into a semi-priva...

Ready to rock

The last couple of days have been really nice -- almost normal, actually. I got a couple of pints of blood which gave me a bit more energy,...

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The transplant plan...

First, thanks for the words of encouragement on the heels of my previous post, which I admit was rather moribund. But honestly, you should ...

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

A creepy glimpse ahead...

First of all, no sooner do I compliment the biochemist behind Ambien than his child-drug lets me down. Night before last I got three hours,...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A special thanks...

...to the biochemist that invented Ambien. I FINALLY got six hours of uninterrupted sleep last night, thanks to that little miracle pill. ...

Friday, March 27, 2009

You people are the best...

First, the update. Pain from hip a little better today with some help from Tylenol. Labs indicate my blood is ALMOST back to normal. My r...

Catch up time!

Sorry folks, but this week has flown by. It's also hard to convey the exhaustion that sets in -- whether this is due to the chemo, or 1...

Sunday, March 22, 2009

As soon as I brag...

...about the igG going down, yesterday's markers were 6500. Oh well. Not supposed to look day-by-day. The good: still out of the hospi...

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Free at las....blaaaaargh.....

So I did get released yesterday. I think I was not quite ready for primetime but I've been taking it easier and I'm surviving. I go...

Friday, March 20, 2009

On the verge of release...

Mornin' folks. A lot (mostly good) has happened in the last 24 hours: * I continue to feel better following back surgery and while the ...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Well.......crap. : (

So my back hurt all night long. I asked for (and was given) a copy of my labs this morning and there are a couple of numbers outta whack. M...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Fiddlesticks.....or #%&*%$@%&!!!! OUCH!!!!!!!!!

I awoke this morning after anxious dreams to learn I had been transformed into a giant cockroach. With apologies to Kafka, I should have it ...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A quick aside...

...the evening shift nurse these past few nights is a very nice guy. Extremely knowledgeable. Kind to a fault. Likes to chat. The kind of...

Bad to the bone...

Some good, and some mostly crummy details on the eve of my back surgery. First, the final count on stem cell collection was 28 mil stem cell...

Monday, March 16, 2009

STILL WAITING...

Where the hell IS Godot anyway? I am having a hell of a time concentrating on typing (literally three out of four keystrokes are wrong bec...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Waiting for Godot...

Now I'm just waiting for the vertebraeplasty, which can hopefully be performed tomorrow, after which I'll be discharged. It's h...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Harvester of Sorrow...

I awoke this morning to the dulcet tones of two orderlies telling me they'd be coming back to bring me to apheresis shortly. I had two ...

Friday, March 13, 2009

What a long, strange trip it's been! (warning: lighthearted scatalogical humor in this storyline)

So sorry for the delay between responses but as you will no doubt discern, there have been reasons for the delay. I have no intention of gi...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Livin' it up at the Hotel Chemotherapy...

It's been a few days...I've been in a "chemo fog" for some time. The side effects are fairly manageable so far -- I had a...

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Wednesday: The Chemical Wedding

It got up this morning early, still exhausted from the doping the day before. If I can just make it through a couple of cycles of dex I can...

The lost Tuesday...

Yesterday was a blur. I went to the clinic to get something prescribed for my back, to pick up the thalidomide and tamiflu prescriptions, t...

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Ugh.

I feel awful. I got to the bottom, yesterday, of why the first bone marrow under versed didn't hurt, but he crazy guy and his RN didn...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Slow day...

I had difficulty sleeping last night because of back pain. Got up this morning and had to take some advil. It was a little better, but it ...

Saturday, February 21, 2009

First trip to the infusion center...

I went over there for what I thought would be a quick injection of Velcade at 11AM. We left around 2:30PM. The waiting wasn't that bad, ...

Chemical breakfast...

About to head over for the Velcade after finishing my first breakfast in anticipation of treatment. Courses: 1. One bowl raisin bran with sk...

Friday, February 20, 2009

Last notes before the battle...

So today was supposed to be a short day and ended up being long. Went to the clinic to meet with BB. I figured it would be a 30 minute cons...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Dateline: Little Rock

This will be a quick (for me, meaning 6 paragraphs or so) update. We are now ensconced in a decent apartment which was until very recently ...

Monday, February 16, 2009

Good Night Saigon...

It's very hard to go to bed, knowing this will be the last night at home for three months...knowing that tomorrow morning I say good bye...

More nonsense from CIGNA...

So the good news is I got a phone call saying that the procedures have been approved. This is once again inconsistent as they have also bee...

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The last weekend as a free man...

...or, if you want to take a more optimistic view of things, the last weekend before I start killing my cancer. I've eaten very well ove...

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Formal start date now set...

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 thi...

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Nick: Los Angeles, CA

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