Yeah I know... It's been too long since I've posted. So let me catch you up on how everthing is and whats been going on. I'll be brief.
We have had a great summer. It began with Stevan going to see Dr Selby at the end of May. We discussed and decided to have Stevan go on maintance cancer medicine. He start that at the end of July. This time around it upset his stomach. He had been nauseous most of the time. I upped his nausea medicine and that has seemed to help.
I had a pretty big garden this summer. Lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, several kinds of squash and peppers. I was able to sell our extras at our local farmers market. It was nice to have a bit of extra cash to put back. Since school started, I've been giving away okra, the remaining small tomatoes and peppers that are still coming off. This summer I was able to can tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, plum jam, cinnammin spice fig jam, and jalapino jam and freeze corn and squash. Since school started, I've been giving away okra, the remaining small tomatoes and peppers that I've finally gotten a few nice pickings of greenbeans, enough to can a couple of dozen quarts for us to enjoy over the winter months. I love homegrown foods, better than store bought. It's a lot of work but so worth the reward latter down the road.
We chose to take that extra money I had put back and take the kids to Branson for a couple of days before school started for them, to make some memories and have a bit of fun. The first night we went to the Dixie Stampeed, which I had had not seen Dustin smile and laugh that much in a long time. We then spent the next day at Silver Dollar City. We were tired and worn out, but had a great time.
We went back to Dr Selby last month. Stevan's blood work revealed that Stevan's protein levels were up. Back in April his M-spike had been .3, now it is at 1.1, not good! His Kappa Light Chain went from 38.94 to 190.41! And his kappa/lambda,free is now at 23.08 (normal is .26-1.65ratio). Yes the doctor was concerned as we're we after we had a few days to process it all.
Selby discussed a couple of options with us, go back on his belly shots of Velcade, or upping his dose of Revlimid or upping his dose of Revlimid and adding Dexamethasone back to the mix. After looking at throwing pros and cons and the fact that he had responded quite well to the mix of Dex and Revlimid in the past, we chose the latter drug protocol.
Stevan's been on it now for a month and seems to be doing well. The nausea is gone, thanks to Dex, which does keep him up on Monday and Tuesday nights, so he takes a strong sleeping pill, which nocks him out til morning. The Dex has givin him his energy back. He doesn't seem to be sleeping as much as before. There are days he takes a nap, like on the weekends, but those are usually the days I take one with him because we are both exhausted!
The first quarter of school ended for me this past week. Wow, how time flies! I just realized that I hadn't posted since April. Those of you who know us personally know that the next month and a half will be deer season for us, so we will spend a lot of times out in the woods and mountains north of us. Next week is youth hunt for the kids. And then the next two weekends will be muzzleloading season. Stevan and I love this time of year, spending time with family, God and admiring his beautiful creation around us. Stevan has always said he feels close to God out in the woods. I have to agree with him. I spend a lot of my time sitting and talking to Him and telling him how thankful I am. God has been good to us and has taken care of us throughout this year. There will be many things to be thankful for this year at Thanksgiving.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We have so many friends that we hold near and dear to our hearts, sometimes words are not enough, but we do what we can to repay your kindness.
