Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A beautiful pain free day.....

Our Saturday night "after midnite" visit to the ER - strange doctor - 125 mg. of Medrol (steroid) has worked wonders. My honey has been without his horrendous, unrelenting back and leg pain since about mid-morning on Sunday. We always look forward to Tuesdays, since it's Chemo, and 20 mg. of Dex, day. He gets out of bed, looking for those 5 little white pills, which are worth their weight in gold. They take him, pain free, until about Thursday noon.

In preparation for the pain we expect to return, he also has 3 - 50 mcg Fentanyl patches on his back, and continues to take the 6 mg. of Delaudid every 4 hours.

His lab numbers are still good. WBC = 9.70 which is within the normal range.  RBC = 3.63, HGB = 11.6,  and HCT = 32.9 all are still lower than they should be, but are continuing to improve each week. His Platelets are 215,000 and finally in
the normal range. His M-Spike is 0.3, and the light chains are normal (Free Kappa Lt Chain = 11.74, Free Lambda Lt Chain = 11.26, and Kappa/Lambda Ratio = 1.04. These numbers mean that he's almost in remission!

He has two more Chemo treatments in this Cycle, and then a possibility of heading to Dallas for the SCT Autologus (harvesting of his own Stem Cells) workup.

Thursday, we will meet with a Neurological Spine Specialist to learn if there's anything, other than drugs, to combat the constant pain in his back and legs. Keeping our fingers crossed, and saying lots of prayers, that this will be a "Miracle visit".

This afternoon, we sat in the rocking chairs on our front porch, and soaked up the warm, wonderful sun. Almost impossible to believe that it's January 4th, and we were able to sit outside in short sleeves!  A small bird (if it's not red, blue, or a hummingbird, I can't identify it!) perched on my new filled feeder, and ate as if it had had nothing all winter. A 7 or 8 point Buck ran across the front yard, and into the woods, oblivious to us. Occasionally, the wind brushed the tops of the tall pines that stand guard beside the house. And, for that hour, we forgot that things weren't normal.

We've learned to take nothing for granted, including the fact that he's almost in remission. And, we're thankful for each and every day.........especially those with no pain!!

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