What's For Dinner?

10 months since my last post.....yikes. I wanted to write this post for a while, but something else always seems to come  up.  The picture you see really is the pile of pills I take in the evening, although we have now added one more. It makes me think of a conversation I was having with a friend a few months ago; he also suffers from multiple health issues, and we were commiserating about our problems. After he shared his, he asked me to describe my situation.  As I finished, his eyes were a bit wide and he said, "You win!"  HAHAHAHA

I also take a pile of pills at breakfast, but unlike the ones in the picture, they are mostly supplements to try and keep my health up. The point here, as my wife notes, is I take a lot of pills. The good news of this is that they seem to be working! 

I may have already said this in another blog, but I am "generally" healthy in the sense that I am not in the hospital, not in painful agony, not currently taking chemotherapy, and not getting substantially worse.  I am almost fanatical about taking my pills and doing my morning and evening routines. In some sense, I feel a bit like I am juggling multiple balls at the same time, and so far, things are going OK. Keep juggling!  Kudos to my wife who tolerates and supports me in my fanaticism.

I admit that there is some anxiety underneath all of this. What if I miss several doses of something and one of my multiple conditions starts to get out of hand? What this be like a wooden tower of Jenga slowly tipping over? Hopefully not, but that is what is in my head!!

So what is the latest?  

Overall, more of the same, which is a good thing. My M-spike is holding at 1, although I don't think it has dropped below one (like it was sometimes doing before) in quite a while. My oncologist moved me to Zometa treatments every 3 months with full blood work-ups and meetings every six months. I had a recent PET scan (my annual tradition is usually a full-body CAT scan, but they did PET this year to see if there were active tumors). The results showed NO large very active tumors. 👍  Obviously, there are still myeloma cells in my bone marrow, or I would not have a suppressed immune system, ongoing fatigue and weakness, and any M-spike, but it seems like the cancer is just maintaining status quo for now -- it is keeping itself there and alive, but not growing quickly which would show up on the PET scan. The only worrisome sign are the labs that track the proteins that can damage my kidneys. They have been slowly going up, so we are keeping an eye on those. 

We had another great report recently -- for the first time in 5 years, my dentist said I showed improvement in my gum disease.  Wahoo! After being frustrated for all this time that I could not seem to get rid of the gum disease, I switched to a new toothpaste designed to attack gingivitis and periodontitis, and I am using an Amway mouthwash; one of these, or maybe the combo, has lead to this success. The periodontitis is not gone, but I feel like I beat it back under the bushes. Hopefully the next report will be even better.  

Having Cancer During COVID

I don't think I'm alone in feeling like this year has been one awful roller coaster ride. It didn't start too badly at the beginning, but now 2020 feels like:  

 

 

Right? The recent hurricanes and massive evacuations from the fires have not made things feel any better. Having Myeloma and a compromised immune system, not to mention all of the other side-effects/exacerbated conditions that the cancer seemed to trigger off, makes me VERY high risk; most of our family is high risk. We are very cautious and wear our masks when we go into any public venue (which we usually do mostly for basic things like groceries) -- this may help protect us somewhat and if we do get infected will help others;  we wash our hands, we maintain social distance, we track rates and locations of disease spread. I was terrified and very anxious for the first several months of the pandemic. As we have learned more about the illness, we are not quite as anxious, although we are still very cautious. We are grateful to all who also wear masks and social distance when we are out.

 

We miss seeing friends and neighbors, and we are hoping and praying that all of you are well. We know of some (including some of you reading this!) who have suffered greatly as a result of this pandemic -- our son also came down with it back in June, I think. He came through without hospitalization, but he had a rough time of it for a while. He recovered and hopefully is protected for a few months, at least. We still encourage caution.

Now we come to the best part of the year! Our son, Wes, the Squatty Potty Prince, returned home to live with us in April because all of his work opportunities in California shut down. Honestly, given what is happening there now, it was probably a good thing. Then in August, our other son Ben, his wife Sonal, and our adorable grandson came to stay, so we have had a full (and sometimes loud 😬) household! There is another Tolman on the way, due in December, so next visit will be even a bit more chaotic. They are considering moving out to the intermountain west, so we'll see what happens.  We love snuggling with the grand baby, playing with blocks again (been a while since we did that), and reading the same books over and over (THANK YOU Orem library for some variation).  We hope you are finding joy in your families and peace during this turbulent times.  

So, on to dinner!  I wonder what I should do for dessert??