Well, this has truly been an "Adventure" as I promised myself it would be shortly after my diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma back on March 17, 2010...now, if you click on the Multiple Myeloma link you're gonna read about a "5 year life expectancy".
Well that's bull pucky, at least for me.
For just like when I got sober and God picked me up and set me down in the midst of a gaggle of recovered alcoholics who guided me to permanent sobriety, with the Multiple Myeloma He picked me up and set me down in the midst of a passel of Drs., one of which is one of the worlds most foremost authorities on Multiple Myeloma who , in a nutshell provided me with the following...at first he, they, told me that with chemo and a bone marrow transplant they could "give me" up to that 5 years, but then shortly after that they declared me a good candidate for a stem cell (my own stem cells!) transplant and then they could "give me" up to 10 years.
I had the transplant on August 25 of last year.
I look at it like this...10 years ago if one had Multiple Myeloma, they just said, "Go home, put your feet up, take some aspirin and when the time comes we'll call in Hospice." So, if in the last 10 years my Drs. can "give" me 10 years, up from nothing 10 years ago, what are they going to come up with in the next ten years?
Sooooooo, where am I today with the Multiple Myeloma?
I don't understand Dr. talk because they've gone to talking in #s, but "they" say that for Multiple Myeloma to be a real issue the Myeloma # has to be 10 or above...right now mine is 1 (one)!
So in spite of the collateral issues I've been having for a while, the cancer is "under control" and if we/they can figure out the collateral issues they can get me back on the chemo, which they had to stop because the chemo was contributing to he collateral issues.
Collateral issues?
Yeah.
One of the things that I was told when diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma was that there would likely be complications and that people most often died from the complications of Multiple Myeloma rather than Multiple Myeloma itself...so that means I'll be dealing with complications, a.k.a. collateral issues for a long time...so just deal with them, right?
So, here's the deal(s).
One of the complications that I deal with is pneumonia. I actually had pneumonia way before I had the Multiple Myeloma.
Now, the pneumonia that I deal with today is a french-kissin' cousin to the pneumonia that I had 5 or 6 years ago and was viral and bacterial induced. It's known as Organizing Pneumonia , and if'n you can make heads or tails of what that link sez, lemme know.
What I do know is that it's not viral or bacterial in origin...the Drs. tell me that it's "caused" by all the antibiotics that I take to keep my immune system in good shape and also to try and adios something known as C. diff .
And guess what, C. diff is caused by antibiotics!!!
Soooooo, I'm sorta caught in a no win situation as "they" try'n figure out how to effect treatments for my Multiple Myeloma complications/collateral issues.
They treat the Organizing Pneumonia with antibiotics that foster the C. diff that when treated with antibiotics cheer-leads the Organizing Pneumonia.
So, here I am at the rehab, getting better in my opinion...two weeks ago when I got here I couldn't even stand on my own...and trust that the Great Physician is working through my secular physicians to figure this all out.
Anywho, Matt is almost here with dinner, so I think I'll spell-check & post!
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