Will you still love me to-marrow - John Mycroft and Multiple Myeloma

The soccer reffing season here in Asheville always starts with a bang - the Riverside Shootout tournament run over two weekends.  The first weekend (which was this last weekend) is for boys and the second weekend - you work it out.  I had 2 games on Saturday and two more on Sunday, both in 85 degree heat and 100% humidity so I think I held up pretty well.  Even better, my mind was up to the job - I've previously had trouble figuring out who'd done what and who should get a free kick or throw in.  A coach who'd been a nice friendly guy on Saturday decided to blow a gasket at my assistant refs on Sunday - I'm guessing he'd had a rough night or not won as many games as he'd hoped. Plans for this weekend are 3 games on Saturday and another 3 on Sunday so guess who will be as stiff as a board on Monday.    I then start a whole new chemo regime on Tuesday - still with the Revlimid and steroids but with a beefier intravenous drip with the option of having a ...

Off to Wake Forest full of hope and expectation.  Well, it was a nice drive.  It turns out that all the gunk I have been swallowing and having stuck in me has not been as successful as needed and anticipated.  So, while I feel better than I did, I am nowhere near remission which is where I should be by now.  The chemo is bumping off the nasties in my blood stream but it is also bumping off the good bits so we've got to get more aggressive while I've still got some viable marrow. This means the next step is to up the power of the chemo, filling me up through a vein infusion rather than a quick jab in the gut.  That's likely to give me a real taste of the traditional chemo side-effects of vomiting and diarrhea should be fun at school. I get this week off from chemo capsules which will give my body time to recover before I start the nastier stuff (whose name I can't remember but rest assured it will be branded on my brain as much as the others ere long).  As...

This morning Susan and I will take a drive (OK, she'll drive) to Wake Forest University Hospital to discuss a stem cell transplant.  We're not 100% clear on whether they are telling us what it's all about, if they are preparing me for one (ie checking my insurance is up to date) or saying "Hop up on the table while I drill holes in your leg".  All will be revealed.  I have had some generous offers of stem cells from some lovely people but the good news from them is that my own cells get taken, treated really nastily and then pumped back in again some days later.  This could all involve an extended stay in Winston Salem which isn't a bad place to get stuck - they like you to stay near the hospital, presumably "just in case".  Don't like the sound of that. At least it gets me out of a day of meetings at school including one about the new time and attendance management system which I suspect is going to be aimed at implementing the new overtime pay...

This last month has seen me move to a new (to me) drug, Revlimid, which is apparently a development from thalidomide.  I suspect the Distiller's Company is trying to make back the money they lost on thalidomide by bumping up the price of this beast (about $30,000 a month, very little of which, I am delighted to say, we pay).  My first month of taking it is coming to an end and I'm pretty glad about it though I don't know what next month etc has in store.  I took it for 21 days (last one is today) and will then have 7 days off during which I hope the minor side effects will go away.  The side effects are my old friends - my appetite is back to that of a 100 kg man rather than that of a Russian weightlifter, I still don't sleep Tuesday nights (that's the steroids) and I have lost my sour sense of taste which makes my exorbitantly expensive British pickles taste like crap and a carefully prepared Caesar salad taste a bit like paint. On Wednesday, Susan and I head for ...