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

Yesterday I turned up at Cancer Care to get a dose of chemo and was told, much to my puzzlement but eventual delight, that I wasn't going to get one.  I am done with that stuff.  And, once I have finished my 25mg Revlimid capsules, I will be going on to a 10mg dose.  Brilliant!  I don't know if I still need to keep taking my fortnightly steroids - I sincerely hope not.  Presumably I will find out more when I see Dr M next Friday.

Susan & I spent the day pottering around variously waiting for the eclipse.  Everyone has made such a ginormous hoohah over it that we decided to watch from home and a good time was had by both, even getting a bit of exercise lugging comfy chairs out to the front stoup to watch the world go dark.  Yesterday I plucked up the courage to ref 3 games in the local tournament - I wasn't sure how running up and down in typical Asheville heat was going to agree with me but I cunningly managed to take to the sideline on the shady side of the field for the first 2 games.  The third (and final) game I paid for my sins by taking the centre spot in direct sun but survived anyway.  Alas, I did make one ghastly mistake which gave a team a goal that they shouldn't have been awarded.  Even worse, their coach was nice about it which made me feel really bad.  To be fair to me, the team that got the unfair goal deserved to win anyway (it was a draw).  I think I will s...

Ignore my previous post - my brother Bob doesn't have cancer after all.  Best bit of news I've had all year.  So to celebrate I am on my way to Vancouver to spend a few days with him and his family.  I will try not to destroy my foot on his fold out bed (again).

Previous rounds of chemo have been largely non-events for me - no nausea, slight side effects around the gut and brain but not much of a big deal.  This has changed with my new infusion of carfilzomib.  I'm taking it along with Revlimid and it has some odd effects.  For starters, it makes me progressively more dopy as the infusion - which takes half an hour - progresses.  It feels, I imagine, a bit like being executed slowly as I gradually lose the power to think.  I should probably stop driving myself home from the appointments.  It kills my appetite, too which is something I don't enjoy - no nausea but no hunger, either. It costs a bloody fortune and I am very grateful to Medicare for footing the bill.  (It would cost less had a previous US government not forbidden Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies, an immensely incomprehensible idea.)  I suspect that it would not be available in New Zealand at all though I could be wrong.  ...

Bloody hell it was hot this weekend.  On Thursday and Friday I had a coupe of hefty doses of chemo along with some steroids with the inevitable result of a dud night's sleep on Thursday and not much better on Friday.  Then on Saturday we were off to High Point to check in with Sam at the Uni.  He's strutting around the place like a senior, knowing all the shortcuts between buildings and saying "See you in Slane" as if we have a clue what he's talking about. Susan to the rescue (again).  She drove all the way there on Friday and all the way back on Saturday.  Not that it's overly far - about two and a half hours - but it's a pretty boring drive for the most part.  The temperature reached 99 degrees on the way home so we were grateful for aircon in the car.  I don't know if it was the chemical brew or the heat and humidity but something left me feeling pretty washed out by Saturday night.  It's now Sunday and I've got a new pastime to keep me bu...

Today is the no particular anniversary of my blog so, to refresh my memory and to save those looking at the blog for the first time, I'm going to use my highly faulty memory to summarise the last 18 months or so. When my MM fist started developing, nobody can tell.  It was about 3 years ago when the Red Cross told me they didn't want my blood because it wasn't rich enough.  So off to the doc to have blood tests done which showed I was, indeed, low on hemoglobin.  I was told to bugger off and buy some vitamin pills which didn't do anything for my chances of giving blood. The I started getting all kinds of grief from my boss at school, usually in the form of kangaroo courts where she and her boss had decided that something I'd done (getting air conditioning fixed, making one period a week a question and answer session and so on) was unprofessional.  Eventually they kicked me out of the math department having conveniently hired a younger guy who took my place.  S...

Had a few scheduling problems this week.  I am supposed to be getting chemo intravenously every Thursday & Friday, 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off.  At the same time, I take a big dose of Revlemid every day for 3 weeks then have a week off and take a small dose of steroids every other Monday.  (I'm hoping the steroids won't give me sleepless nights).  As you can imagine, it took a few goes to get the teeth of those cogs meshed but I think we are now in business.  Oddly enough, my steroids (of which I take 5 at a time) had 33 pills in the pot.  Anyone want to buy 3 steroid pills (please note - that is a joke: I've already given them to Bill Nighey). Upshot of this was that I arrived at Cancer Care on Thursday for my infusion only to be told that my appointment is next week.  Not being prepared to waste a nice day, I shot home, stuck some air in my bike's tyres and took off to Biltmore, well aware that I am not as fit as I have been and with there being ...