Raging Myeloma

This post has been a couple months in the planning. We are still here and kicking... just not as high.
In my last post we were elated to the fact that the essential oils we were using seemed to be working. Stevan's M-spike was non-existent. He felt good and was doing. However since then, there have been some major issues that have arisen.

Stevan had some problems with his collar bone at the end of Sept. He felt like maybe he had broke one when he was rolling a cedar log out of a bucket on a tractor. After several weeks, he finally went to a doctor and got an X-ray to show that it was broken... then he started complaining about his other collar bone. Back to the doctor. Yep it was broken too. The doctor suggested we get an appointment with Dr Selby, Oncologist, even though we had just had labs and X-rays done two months before that showed everything was great!

BAM! The M-spike was back to a 3.1 on Oct 16, when Stevan went to see Dr Selby. By this time Stevan was having some other serious symptoms, incontinence, pain wrapping around from his back to his groin area, and swelling in the groin area. Dr Selby immediately sent Stevan to be admitted to OU Medical Center for an full body X-ray and MRI of his spine to see what was going on, and later performed a CT scan. They found a mass pressing on his vertebra in his lower back pressing small bone shards into the spinal cord. They immediately began radiation, starting with the old block kind and then changed to a new kind of radiation that is pencil lead thin to only target the problem areas and protect the spinal cord. He spent two weeks in the hospital and then came home Oct 30th with the   understanding he would have an appt to follow up and continue radiation on his right hip in Paris, Tx, which the oncology team at OU was also concerned about. They were afraid it was going to break.

Stevan finally got into Paris Oncology and began radiation on his sternum Nov 10th. When he was at OU in Oct they told us there was a quarter size hole in his sternum but was now the size of a softball and was now causing a lot of pain and the doctor in Paris wanted Stevan to be more comfortable. Nov 17, the labs showed that his hemoglobin was at a 6.7 and he would be getting 3 units of blood the next day. On Nov 20th, his hemoglobin was up to 8.9, not good but better (the range should be 14-18). They also said that they would stay on top of it and watch it.

Stevan and I spent the week of Thanksgiving up in the hills hunting. The first of the week we had the kids. Wednesday, Stevan's sister Cherl and her other half, Will came up from Mississippi and stayed till Friday with us. Then one of our friends son, Kyle, came up on Friday and spent the night with us.
Overall, not productive in hunting but relaxing and enjoyed the time out side with God's creation.

After Kyle left on Saturday, we decided to load a few things up and take home that afternoon. We should have done this before Kyle left. Stevan asked me to load up one of the 4-wheelers on the small trailer. Long story short, I had problems loading it and it ended up flipping over on top of me, landing me in the ER that evening with a severely jammed left pinky and a broken right pinky. I'm thankful it was me and not Stevan that was on the 4-wheeler. I was able to get out of the way faster than he would have been able to. I was lucky that is all that happened.

Sunday, Stevan's brother, Bill came up and helped us load the rest of the camping stuff. What would have taken all day, only took about two hours with his help.

Thursday, Dec 4, we came to OKC for Stevan's follow up appointments with Dr Herman, Radiologist, and Dr Selby, Oncologist. When he arrived at Herman's office, the nurse noticed that Stevan had blood coming from a his nose. They called Selby's office and they ordered labs which they were able to determine his hemoglobin was at a 5.9, dangerously low. Selby's office ordered us to go to the ER at OU Medical and have them give him another blood transfusion. When we got to the ER, we got in the fastest we ever have, 3 minutes, we didn't even sit down. Within an hour, they had us a room upstairs.

They gave Stevan 4 units of plasma to help his blood to clot. They then began to give him 3 units of red blood over night. He was having sever pain in different areas of his body, so they began to try and see what was going on by scheduling MRIs for those areas. After him spending several days in OKC he was released with nothing really resolved.

The one thing that was discussed was the fact that radiation was not working. It was simply hitting a couple of spots at a time and managing pain. I spoke with one doctor that came to evaluate Stevan and she agreed that the radiation was not working, that his treatment had to be changed.

I will post more when we have more information...

Good Day +6

Yesterday and today has been pretty uneventful all the way around. Other than Stevan having diarrhea yesterday and today he's been pretty good. At midnight last night he had a small fever, 99.2 so it was nothing to be concerned about. Dr. Jennifer Holter stopped by this morning for a quick look at Stevan. She is now on rounds here in the unit, so we will be seeing her daily until Stevan leaves.

Stevan's red headed nurse, Jenni, told him that he was getting the floating nurse tonight. The regular unit nurses are to work the sicker patients and he wasn't that sick... LOL that made him feel good!

Stevan's counts today were:
White cells are now at a low of .1
Red cells         3.50
Hemoglobin  10.6
Platelets          72
Grace, his nurse yesterday told us that they will be closely watching each of these but when his hemoglobin goes below 8, they will give him a blood transfusion. If his platelets go below 10, he will then get platelets. Yesterday I requested my readers to donate blood. It is actually really needed, since outside the Oklahoma Blood Institute has signs up outside their building, stating there is a blood shortage. A nurse told me that it is not normal for the OBI to have those signs up.

The only excitement we have gotten today has been tonight when the thunderstorm came through and the tornado sirens in town sounded. Then the softball size hail fell for a good 10 minutes. The nurses thought we were going to have to go into the hallway, but we didn't. I was glad that I had parked in the parking garage this afternoon. It continues to storm here but I think the worse is over.

I am continue to take care of myself and get out of the hospital. Today I went to lunch with Pam Burnside. She and her husband are the parents of a former coworker of mine from Plano, TX, who took us in last summer while Stevan had his first round of radiation. Wonderful family!

We actually have had many families and individuals help us throughout this rough time. We have neighbors looking out for our animals at home as well as our house. Just checking in with us to see how we are is such a comfort to us. So thank you for all that you do to help and comfort us. You are a blessing to us.