March-Multiple Myeloma Awareness Month

Happy St Patrick Day I hope you wore your green today. We did! We even learned at church today who St Patrick was. He is known for spreading Christianity throughout Ireland as a missionary during the 5th century. And yes, this is March and its been almost a month since my last post. All is going well considering. So lets make this as short as possible since its late and there really is a lot going on in our lives.

In my world, I'm teaching full time during the week (Mon-Fri), working at our neighbors cafe on Friday evenings, taking an internet graduate class, cooking for Stevan every chance I get to make sure that he's getting a good diet, and making sure all of the cows, dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks are fed each night. We gained an orphan calf a few weeks ago that I get to bottle feed, now twice a day.

On Feb 25 he had an appt with Dr Herman, radiation doctor, who said everything looked good. He also saw Dr Bitner, eye specialist, who said everything looked good there. They had him take a visual field test. He scored 100%! He was pleased with himself. A few days later, Feb 28, we went to see Dr Selby, stem cell transplant doctor. Stevan had been complaining of his left upper arm and shoulder hurting, so Selby had it x-rayed. They did some lab work but all in all said that Stevan looked good. We discussed future treatments options and how many more rounds of Velcade would he be looking at. Selby thinks that 4 rounds will be enough to kick the myeloma cells back into their place. So Stevan will begin his 4th and we hope his last round of Velcade belly shots this Tue. He will be receiving the shot twice a week, this week and next. He will then follow up with Dr Selby on April 15th for a round of labs and get an appt for his PET scan, which he is excited to get. LOL.

Velcade, 40mg of dexamethasone, and Acyclovir is the main cancer drugs that Stevan is taking. He also has his once a month Zometa that helps to harden his bones back up. He's not taking as many naps as he was a month ago, which is allowing him to sleep better at night, unless its Friday when he takes his dexamethasone. The doctor prescribed him a sleeping pill to take on the weekend, so that he can sleep. That has been a life saver for him and me. He doesn't have to watch me sleep and he doesn't wake me up because he cant sleep. NICE!

This week is spring break for me. One less job for me to do... teach and grade papers. But instead I'll be doing some much neglected house work and paper work that I have been putting off. There is a lot of little projects that I have been holding off on doing. Maybe I can knock them out this week. Yesterday we got one completed, digging out our cattle guards so that our cows don't walk across them and get out. We actually had two yearling get out on Friday. One came back this evening. We are still looking for the other heifer.

We have also been worried about my aunt Louise. She was medivaced out of Pakistan back before Christmas for poor circulation in her legs and feet. Long story short, she has been home in Valliant on blood thinners, waiting for surgery to help fix some of her problems. My mom went with her to the Cleveland Clinic to help and support her after her surgery on March 4th. Her surgery went well, but she developed complication with a medicine they gave her. She had some major side effects for several days. After that passed, she began having cramps in her legs. Mom began massaging them and when the pain began moving up her leg, they called the doctors in. After lots of test, they rushed her to emergency surgery for a blood clot, trying to save her legs and a possible bypass. After several hours of prayer, phone calls and anxiety, my mom finally called and said all was good. Not as major as they originally thought, legs saved, no damage to nerves, no bypass needed, but she would be in ICU for several days. The next day they decided that she is having problems breathing. They put her on a ventilator to help her. To say the least her spirits were low, but I'm so glad my mom was there to help encourage her and stay with her. As of today the doctor is going to try to pull her off the ventilator tomorrow and see how she does. Mom says that she is gaining strength and doing better.

So "How are we doing?" God is good to us and hears our prayers. Trying to stay optimistic when its so easy to be down with what we are going through. The one thing that allows me to continue on is knowing that "Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Deut 31:6, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Psalm 121:1 and finally "I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13