December blues

This is a hard time of year for me, in November 2003 I fractured my t10 . I didn't know it then but I did. I had just bought an estate sale of life magazines right after thanksgiving . It was 40 boxes of life. Somehow I thought that was the beginning of my life with life magazines but really it lead to my diagnosis of multiple myeloma . The weekend after I moved all the boxes, I felt a twinge in my back
The next morning I got up out of bed and collapsed. It kept on.. I went to the doctor, but saw a nurse practitioner Instead, she said It was a sprain. Ha, I persevered  and finally it must have started healing on its own.  Except it was cancer that caused the fractured. But December is a hard month for me, because I remember the pain, and I couldn't do much for the holidays . It was a sad depressing time but worst was still to come.

 In the spring I finally wanted some physical  therapy, and the X-rays showed a compression fracture. No one questioned why... So I did nothing.....

The following spring I decided to see a back doctor about kypoplasty , and I had an MRI , it was the worst day of my life.
The nurse said to come to his office at 5 pm on that Friday,,   So then Barclay and I went and he was the worst doctor I'd ever had. He blurted out, you have bone cancer. I was shocked and even more shocked. My life crumbled into a heap.
What was he talking about.
So in the end after the second worst moment if my life , a bone biopsy, I which I thought what is this guy doing with a hammer pounding into my back.... I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma .

The rest is history, radiation for the plasmacytoma , chemo, stem cell transplant . 

But it all started in November /December. Of 2003.
So that's 9 years ago. But I know is been there way before that...

October 1

It was my 60th  birthday yesterday. It certainly is weird to cross over to the sixties. I don't feel 60 ( well maybe when I'm on rev/ dex). But for now it's cool. The weather in California  is fabulous around 95 here where I live but cool at night. This is only for a few days.
  I've been off dex ,rev for three weeks and I feel really good. I should get my m protein results this week. Since I wasn't at zero, like I thought, but .18 , I'm guess its going to slowly rise. I'd like to stay off drugs till after Christmas , but well see.

  Still working on my minimalism in the house, but haven't done much this week. I will go thru some Halloween stuff today. Really though less is more and there less stuff to clean. I'd like to still get rid of more.

 Happy birthday to me, 7 years post dx.

September 16
Well, I haven't written in awhile, so things must have been ok. Usually, if I have issues I tend to write more. So it's been a good period of time. 

DEx has been difficult, but it's just one day a week and then I improve.
But the exciting news is as of today I'm off revlimid and dex! Yeah, 
Not sure how long it will last but I'm in CR now and that's what's important and I am going to savor every moment. 
I feel normal today, even went for a nice work and seem to have pretty good energy. 
We've had lots of tomatoes and I've been freezing sauce. Sachi has done a beautiful garden this year. We even have apples on our tree really for the first time and lots of potatoes.
I'm totally into trying to do minimalism. And it's been a great project. Just continually decluttering and passing nice stuff on to others for them to enjoy and love.
I really like the idea and the look of minimalism , each room is looking better, when I get rid of the patterned rug in the living room for a solid I think it will dramatically improve.
Less is more and for some reasonit seems very important to me to get rid of more and more clutter and just stuff. Some of that stuff is pretty nice, buti don't want it anymore.
This house works better with less furniture and things.That's it for now, I will try and update more regularly.

July 26 Doctor appointment

All is good. I had week off from rev and dex and honestly , I felt normal this week. But my appt was good . M protein at .1 in one test and non detachable in the other. I'll take the non detectable one. So I start my 6 cycle of revlimid tomorrow and dex on Saturday . So it goes........

Memories of July

Well, July is almost over. It's been a good month. We camped again in Tahoe and had a good time. Camp Richardson is not our style, but then we went to Nevada each and honestly, it's the best campground. So, the bad memories are from July 2005. This was my month to have radiation . As you fellow MM ers know, when you have a plasmacytoma , you get to do radiation . So I had 17 rounds and the tattoos to show for it. Radiation wasn't too bad, after the initial very long first appointment to get the giant computer aligned, and then the tattoos to place it. Then the actual radiation was about 90 seconds. So you are in and out very quickly. But for me this was just the beginning, and I was pretty depressed, and withdrawn. Next month started the chemo, so I was in for the long haul. But hey, here I am and now I have good memories of this July ,biking sitting in camp, looking out at Tahoe ...... So good times even if I am still on revlimid and dex.

Good books!

We had a great camping trip to Nevada beach in Tahoe. I brought plenty of books. I really like the Maise Dobbs series. Its well written and the period of pre WWII ,early 1930's is very well described.I recommend the books. Next the latest sue grafton V is for vengeance is also terrific. I also really liked the Steve jobs biography. I don't usually read biographies but this was so well written and interesting, I would recommend it. Reading is my escape to other places and other lives. I have always loved going on journeys that I know physically I will never take but thru books can experience. So next Tahoe trip is mid July.

My hero, my husband!

When I was first diagnosed, the person then, and now, who was my hero ,is my husband. He has been to every appt I have ever had. That is every chemo, every doctors appt and every day during my Sct. Now that it is 7 years later, he still comes to every appt and aredia treatment I get. He is the greatest. He was my high school sweetheart, and this year will be our 42 nd wedding anniversary. We had had a great life. Maybe not money wise, we were never very smart about jobs, but in every other way. We went to college together, had our first child after we were married 15 years and for our 25 th wedding anniversary ( well it was really our 24) , but I like to joke it was our silver anniversary , we had our son. It has been a great life, he is the greatest, and he is my hero.

Head in the sand!

I remember that first six months vividly ,as when I didn't really go out, talk a lot to people,or do much. I think just had my head in the sand and that was how I coped. Of course, I read a lot as I stll do, but mostly I just laid around and tried not to obsess. Of course, if you are trying not to obsess then you really start to obsess. I didn't want to know much about multiple myeloma, I just wanted it to all go away.

So I have come along ways, after my first relapse, June 2010, is honestly when I started asking lots of questions, joined the myeloma list serve, the beacon and anything else. I no longer worry obsessively, okay maybe a little. I handle my cancer better now and am very informed about treatments and what is new in the myeloma research area. I ask questions and I even answer questions because now 7 years from diagnosis I do know something about this and am glad to share.

Just finished Gideons corpse by Preston and child , pretty good read. The main character hasan incurable illness called AVM.
Then finished Bonnie in the Eve Duncan series. Frankly, I thought she came up with a lame conclusion.
Also, just got from the library the new Pioneer woman cooks cookbook, so lookout here come some great recipes.

How it started

I was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer, multiple myeloma in June of 2005. It was the biggest shock and sadness in my life. I actually probably had it for at least 2 years prior as I had a compression fracture in dec 2003 which was caused by the cancer , but of course that was unknown then.
I laugh that it all started with Life. Life magazines that is. I had just bought almost an entire collection at an estate sale. 45 boxes weighing 75lbs each. I then proceeded to load all 45 into my van, unload them and the move them once more. By the weekend the T 10 collapsed and well a year and half later the MRI showed a plasmacytoma ,cancer. So 17 rounds of radiation, and 5 months of chemo and then what is called a stem cell transplant.
Through all this I was shocked, depressed and just out of the flow of life. I seemed to just drift from doctor appointment to the next.
I was homeschooling ,
My son, so that helped with some normalcy .
So after, the sct, I had complete remission for 4 great years. Then relapsed in June 2010
Now there are new drugs to try and I did a combination of revlimid and dexamethesome for 9 months again CR and was off all drugs for 10 months.
I have just started cycle 2 after a very small m spike and am doing ok.
I want to blog so I can write about stuff that we MM survivors are all going thru and what's it's like to live with an incurable cancer.
Plus, I want to write about, books,cooking gardening and life.