Let's get this party started, yo.

 I've been meaning to start this blog since shortly after L was diagnosed with Myeloma. I've been proscrastinating (just as I've been doing this evening -- it's almost 3am) but it always seems to me that there is a perfect moment for things and this is that one for this project.

So from the beginning... L stayed home from church with some "mobility issues" (his words) on Sunday, August 9. Hurting right shoulder and right knee. Monday, he went to his doctor and got a bunch of blood tests and took some X-rays. There was some follow up in the next two days where his doc ordered a bone scan of his shoulder to be done. We went to pick up the order and get that done but of course it was complicated and we weren't able to get it done that day. We made an appointment for the following Tuesday. Wednesday, the doctor called just before 5 and told L that the blood tests indicated there was a good chance that that what he was diagnosed with in Denver a few years back, MGUS, had transformed into Multiple Myeloma.

From there, he was referred to Georgia Cancer Specialist (GCS) and we made an appointment for Friday. L and K were supposed to to Hawaii that Thursday but the doctor said no so K came here instead. The three of us went to the doctor on Friday where the doc basically confirmed the MM diagnosis but was very loose about it (which, in truth, was half hopeful and half annoying). We got a walker for L (very reduced mobility by this point) and got some stronger pain meds for the pain that was now getting stronger and stronger in the shoulder and knee/femur. We also left there with an appointment for the following Wednesday to get a bone marrow bioposy and another for the Wednesday after that to start some treatment to the weakness of L's bones.

K left on Monday evening and I took L to get his bone scans on Tuesday. The original order for a shoulder scan turned into a rib and a hip scan as the doctor kept seeing suspicious areas further and further down as the did the scans. That was obviously pretty scary for everyone so M and K came from Boston that evening and we all went to the appt at GCS on Wednesday morning for the bone marrow biopsy.

We made it from Wednesday to late Friday night. K was helping L get to the bathroom in the middle of the night and he suddenly had extreme pain in his right hip. K woke me to help get him situated in bed and I recommended that we call the ambulance. Sudden new pain = trouble. K and I went to the hospital around 530a where we were in the ER with L until they admitted him to the hospital in the afternoon around 330p. He stayed there from Saturday, the 22nd thru Tuesday, the 1st. It turns out that he fractured his hip and he had surgery to put in two screws to stabilize the bone so it doesn't break again. He's going to heal up from that for a little while longer before the chemo begins.

My aunt and uncle from TX came up on the Sunday after L got admitted and stayed until Friday the 28th. K headed back to Boston on the 30th and M went back on the 2nd. K came back on the 3rd.

We went back to GCS on Friday, where the doctor (different doctor, different GCS office) -- Dr. T -- gave us some straight talk about what's going on. L has IGG Lambda Myeloma, Stage 3. 75-80% of his bone marrow is cancerous. It's not curable but the treatments kill the cancerous bone marrow and the docs watch a protein indicator in his blood. When the indicator disappears, the treatments can stop and L should be back to feeling like his old self again. They continue to watch that protein indicator and when it goes back up, the cancer has returned. The idea is to increase the amount of time that the protein is undetectable and no treatments are needed. The first round of treatments will be a three drug therapy that will go in three week rotations, two weeks on - one week off, two days a week. We're going to start that the week of September 14th. Tuesdays and Fridays.

Right now, L is having some trouble sleeping because of some of the treatments but a Lunesta around bedtime has settled some of the jitteriness that resulted from being so worn out. He still walks around the house incessantly, trying to walk off the healing pains of the surgery. He is very often "on the move" as M would say. But overall, he's doing okay. In good spirits despite the constant pain and ever faithful to his God.

FUN FACTS ABOUT L!!
1. The only CD he listens to is Alvin Slaughter's God Can, started at track number three on repeat all.
2. He likes to take his medicine with either water/ginger ale/white grape juice with crushed ice -OR- warm blueberry-pomegranate juice or tea sweetened with honey.
3. He's taken to calling me Sugar Plum.
4. He doesn't like to talk on the phone very much right now.
5. He LOVES this video.