Friday we came up to OKC to meet with Stevan's new doctor, Dr Hummer, intern for endocrinology, who will be working on his adrenal gland deficiency. We got up at 3:30 this morning to get on the road for pre-lab work at 8am and then a series of blood draws after a dose of medicine to see what his adrenal gland is doing. They believe that he doesn't really have an adrenal problem, but after nine and a half rounds of Revlimid, it has his adrenal gland temporarily not working. This lab work today should tell her what's going on with it as well as if there are some other issues going on that we are not aware of.
This afternoon we meet with Dr White, Orthopedic Oncology, about Stevan bone infection issue. We are hoping they tell us that all looks good and the infection is cleared or clearing up. He will have some x-rays taken of his arm and possibly more blood work. Poor guy is always getting stuck!
School started for me last Monday. We got kids in the classroom on Wednesday. Another year has begun. Did I mention I'm also taking an online graduate math class this semester? Yeah... Like I don't have enough to do... I know. With this class and one more in the spring, I should be ready to teach college full time, if I'm given the opportunity.
Off for now.... More info when we have it.
Us before Myeloma
Celebrating our 5 year Anniversary a few days early. Wow! We've both changed over the past few years.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
Home Day +72
Yesterday was a day for us to relax and catch up on things. I want to follow up with what happened to lead Stevan to be released.
Stevan felt so much better on Wednesday morning. He had not ran a fever since Monday night. He had not had his Vancomycine since Sunday night. Dr White had ran a bone scan and saw that the infection had been responding to the antibiotic and looked better than before. His Potassium was on the low side, so they gave him some per IV and in a couple of pills and then was able to have his picc line removed. They sent the end of it to the lab to check for bacteria or infection.
They have increased his hydrocortisone in the AM from 20mg to 60mg and the PM from 10mg to 30mg for the next three days and then go to 30mg in the AM and 15mg in the PM for the next 30days. He will have an appointment with an endocrinologist on Aug 24 to talk to us about his adrenal insufficiency and how to continue to treat it.
Dr Holter came to visit Stevan and examine him. She said that she wants to wait to do the transplant for at least a month or two. She said that his kidneys are on their way back to being normal, but he must hydrate himself well with water to clean them out and help them to heal.
Before we left the hospital, I asked for copies of the blood work since we were there on Monday. Last night I got to looking at them and to my surprise I found out something that some of my MM readers had commented on and told us to watch for. I had posted before that Stevan's M spike on June 20th was Monoclonal IGA Kappa #1 = .5 and #2 = .1. On last Friday's visit, July 27, his blood test showed his M-spike to be .2 with a small M-skike noted in beta/gamma region. So what does this mean? His M-spike is still dropping and he's not on any maintance therapy.
With all of this combined, we feel like this is an answer to prayers. We hope that in a couple of months maybe his M-spike will be at zero. Definately something to look forward to.
They have increased his hydrocortisone in the AM from 20mg to 60mg and the PM from 10mg to 30mg for the next three days and then go to 30mg in the AM and 15mg in the PM for the next 30days. He will have an appointment with an endocrinologist on Aug 24 to talk to us about his adrenal insufficiency and how to continue to treat it.
Dr Holter came to visit Stevan and examine him. She said that she wants to wait to do the transplant for at least a month or two. She said that his kidneys are on their way back to being normal, but he must hydrate himself well with water to clean them out and help them to heal.
Before we left the hospital, I asked for copies of the blood work since we were there on Monday. Last night I got to looking at them and to my surprise I found out something that some of my MM readers had commented on and told us to watch for. I had posted before that Stevan's M spike on June 20th was Monoclonal IGA Kappa #1 = .5 and #2 = .1. On last Friday's visit, July 27, his blood test showed his M-spike to be .2 with a small M-skike noted in beta/gamma region. So what does this mean? His M-spike is still dropping and he's not on any maintance therapy.
With all of this combined, we feel like this is an answer to prayers. We hope that in a couple of months maybe his M-spike will be at zero. Definately something to look forward to.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Headed Home Day +70
We are headed home right now. We will be tired by the time we get there, so I will post the details of today tomorrow. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. God has carried us through another set of unforeseen circumstances. He is an amazing God.
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