IHLETNT

The title of this blog post is an acronym - I HOPE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS NOT THE TRAIN.......

Well today after 12 days of waiting we have results from the most recent bone marrow biopsy......positive, blasts down from 18% to 5%.....this is a good thing! An adjustment in meds is required as they are killing too many good cells....OK adjustments can be a good thing, now comes the big decision.....do we go for a Bone Marrow Transplant!

When one looks at the factors involved, this one wonders why he is even looking at it. Consider.... you move to Seattle for at least a couple months, OK pretty good seafood, lots of waterfront and I'm sorta used to it raining every day by living in Oregon. I don't think seafood is something I can eat and the waterfront is off limits because I will have -0 immunity, but I think I am starting to like the rain, one out of three isn't bad! Now, if I have this straight, first a PERFECT match must be found for your bone marrow. Hummm, if none of my 3 siblings work then they go to a 300,000 person database and look for a match. I wonder if they know that I have a tough time picking the pea under 3 walnut shells, let alone trying to win the lottery, but wait, I think I got one number once.  We can cross that bridge when we come to it.  If we get this far, then they put you in a sterile environment and kill what few remaining functioning blood cells you have. You now are technically dead I would think, that might be interesting! Then just before you start getting cold, they pump "The Perfect Match" bone marrow cells into your arm and somehow these little critters know to head for the inside of your bones......amazing, given the fact they have never been in your body before. You know, I have some strange things that go on in my body..... I smell pizza and I automatically sit down, I eat bad hot dogs or sausage and my toes swell up, I can't straighten one little finger, there's not a lot of hair left on my head and too much on my back and on and on......how in the world are those little cells, after hanging out in a body that works, going to find their way round in mine? I guess, that is one of the mysteries of the universe...sure hope Dr. Ola has that figured out. Enough of that rabbit trail!

Once you have a strangers life blood trying to figure out where to go inside you, you just wait.... and wait....and wait..... and wait..... after all, those little critters have to figure out where to go and wait..... and wait. I wonder if we could find some real little GPS devices and put some waypoints in them, then teach those little critters how to use them. hummmm,oh never mind.

If those little critters survive and eventually find a new home, now they have to like it! Hope they like pizza and spaghetti and meatballs, Rubin sandwiches and hot dogs and hamburgers, because that is what they are going to have in this body. If they are some kind a vegetarian cells then we are all in trouble, there is this rejection thing that happens, science says it is some kind of auto immune reaction, but I know it's because they don't like Italian food. Gonna see if Dr. Ola checks for that in the screening process.

I just wonder if this old man wants to go through all that stuff....they say I am "robust" that is why I can qualify for a BMT (bone marrow transplant) I wonder if I am "robust" or that price tag that I would run up would have anything to do with it. Speaking of BMT makes one thing of a BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomatoe) this one would much rather think of a BLT.....now that is something I can handle!

I Think I Can I Think I Can, I Think I Can

OK....the Great Adventure continues..... yesterday we expeienced the 2nd bone marrow biopsy, all I can say is OUCH! However, we now have a different attending doctor, Dr. C has replaced Dr. A, I guess Dr. C is more experienced in my stange and mysterious malady....I hope so! A Bone Marrow biopsy is something akin to drilling for oil an the 10000 ft level, first you find a suitable place, usually on the point of your hip bone at the small of your back then you clean out all the underbrush and bring in the drill rig. In my case a 120 lb doctor was determined to strike the mother lode somewhere deep withing my pelvis bone, no matter the bone had been forming for 67 years and resembled granite, she was determined. Thankfully, novacaine helped cover the pangs of a very stout needle (pipe) as it pryed and worked it's way to the mother lode, ocasionally she would ask if I was OK and I assume the grunt that I uttered was sufficient encouragement to continue her quest for the "mother lode". Even though I was assured that bone does not have nerve endings, somehow the anomoly of my DNA must have decided put some there, and they were working perfectly! Finally a breakthrough and a few moments of quiet led me to believe that they were sucking what little functioning bone marrow that I still pocessed into a tank for furthur testing, at last those wonderful words "there we are all done" were uttered, and the drill rig was removed.

Seriously, Dr. C did a fantastic job, I had been dreading the biopsy, based upon the performance of Dr. A and was amazed at the difference between the two doctors. Dr. C proved to be very professional, a great beside manner, very competant and quick. She took about half the the time as Dr. A and the pain was about half as much as I experienced in the first biopsy.....Good Job Dr. C!!!! Will be about a week before the results are back and based upon those results we will talk about furthur treatment. I continue to feel stronger and generally not as dumpy, in fact, better than I have felt since I crashed in October.

During the last week we have had 19 puppies born 14 from Amber. Nine huge pups were unable to be delivered by Gretchen (a chocolate Labrabor) so Saturday morning found us at the vet's office for an emergency C-Section, Seventeen hundred dollars later, we had 5 live pups. Needless to say Sharon was very busy trying to care for the pups as well as keeping up with everything else.....but somehow you manage to keep going, Thank You Father!

2010... And Still Verticle!

Holidays are behind us, as is two cycles of medications. I am cautiously optomistic that I feel better. This morning I was able to do the dog cleanup chores, then promptly came in and fell asleep. Now starts a 3 week resting period where, I presume, they give your body a chance to regroup and recover. Sometime during this cycle or the next, I am told that another bone marrow biopsy will be taken (I am really looking forward to that...NOT) and based upon the results of that test, a descussion will be held concerning the feasibility and possibility of a bone marrow transplant. So it looks like what has begun in 2009 will continue well into 2010.

I am finding that it is easy to give and to help, and most folks are really willing to do that....however, it is difficult to ask and difficult to receive, especially when you are the only one that knows how to get something done right :). I found that I have stayed busy to long and now all those things that I really would like to do, are for the time, being beyond my reach. Seems to me we should all take retirement for 10 years when we are young and then work till we die. I am tired of "what ifs" and have resigned to live on a daily basis, at least for now......