And so this is Christmas...!

Merry Christmas, 2022!  I hope all of you are enjoying some peace, some quiet, and some enjoyment of each other with family and friends this Christmas season. This is my 2nd blog this year, so I'm doing better with that, anyway, than last time.  

Our final day for turning in grades was December 22nd just before midnight, and I got them turned in around 9:15 pm that night.  Wahoo!  This semester was a bit difficult in that regard because I was made Assistant Chair this year (in charge of scheduling classes for 55 full-time faculty and 9 programs/majors), and also the co-chair of the tenure and promotion committee which had a lot of work to do. Whew. The department needed the help, and I am happy to help, but it has been a difficult semester in many ways. 

There have been a few other snags:  Last year, I had an operation for an umbilical hernia. It was getting increasingly uncomfortable, so we had to have it fixed. It wasn't too bad apart from waiting for hours for the surgeon to arrive.......I must love hernias, because this year I had to have more surgery for bilateral (both sides) inguinal hernias!!  There is a great story here.....

 

 

Ready? Earlier this year, for several months I thought I was just getting some type of cramps or pulled a muscle, but the pain was slowly getting worse. During my annual physical exam, I told my provider that I was having pains, and he checked and said we needed an ultrasound. So we went and got that, and they said I had these blasted hernias! I asked if I needed surgery and the answer was it depends on how much it hurts or interferes with things. Well, as time went by it hurt more and more and was interfering in my ability to work and do things. So, back to see the surgeon. He agreed surgery would be helpful, but when I reminded him of my myeloma and low platelets, he said, "No, you probably need robotic surgery, and I don't do that, but we'll refer you to the person who does."  Which he did. Things were getting worse now, so we scheduled as quick an appointment with the new surgeon as we could.  

Patty went with me, and we were waiting in the exam room when he came in, medical student in tow. He was wearing cowboy boots, funky glasses, western shirt, and a long ponytail. He looked like a country singer taking a break during a concert! But he was very nice, examined me and said, "Yup. You need to have those fixed, and we'll do it via robot to reduce the blood problem. Let's get you scheduled." They also would  give me two units of platelets, which to be honest I started looking forward to. But I realized I would have to wait for weeks or months to get the surgery scheduled, meaning I'd have to live with that pain even longer. Then Patty said, "How about tomorrow?" The surgeon gave us a look and said, "No, no, I'm sorry." Then he paused and was thinking. He looked at us again and said "Maybe!" We went out and spoke with the nurse, they got things going, and we were scheduled for surgery the next morning. Yowza. 

I didn't even get to me the robot who worked on me; I called "The Non-Terminator". But recovery took a bit, and I still have some significant inflammation going on, but the pains I was having are gone, and I'm feeling better.  So Patty has taught me a good lesson -- don't assume, and it is worth asking about tomorrow when you're talking to a surgeon!  

So, yeah, this has been quite the summer and then fall semester.  

 So what's the latest on the cancer?  

I had my 2nd review this year in November. Across many of my labs, not much different:  low white cell counts, low red blood cell counts, low hematocrit (volume of red blood cells to total blood volume), platelets back to their terribly low 53 number (remember the bottom of the "normal" range is usually 150.....). So those two units are gone now.  :(    Kappa light chain ratio to lambda chains abnormally high, but not the highest it has ever been. The worst result?  My M-spike, the main marker we watch, is up to 1.4.  When I was first diagnosed it was 1.7 back in ol' 2014.....it was at 1.9 when I began chemotherapy. 

To think of it another way, over the past 7 years, my M-spike has very slowly risen from 0.3 after my transplant to 1.0, making for an average slow increase of around 0.1 per year. This year, 2022, it has gone up 0.4 total in one year -- 4x the rate from before. Yes, we are still below when I was diagnosed which is a miracle, but it was 1.2 in May and 6 months later, 1.4.  If put this on one of my usual curves, that's a pretty steep rise. If it keeps this up, next May, we'll be at 1.6......

As I said in my May blog, I can feel it. Yes, this has been a very stressful 2nd half of the year and that could be contributing to this, but......I'm more tired than I have been, and especially -- my back is hurting much more than it has for a long time now. I don't know if I'm getting turmors back in my lower back like I had before or not, or if this is just from sitting too long trying to get final papers and projects graded, but I'm in more pain. So, here's how I feel:

We'll see what happens in May. In the meantime, spring semester should be a bit calmer. I'm teaching 3 sections of the same class with at least two of them livestream which reduces my grading burden (no online discussions). We still have some tenure-related issues to go over and write about, and scheduling won't be any less, but I think I'll make it. So prayers and best wishes are ALWAYS appreciated, and I thank you all for the love and support I receive from you. In the meantime, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas day and a Happy New Year celebration. Thinking of the birth of Jesus Christ helps me to remember to be humble and to appreciate every blessing that comes to us. Merry Christmas!

Searching for the Balance

 

Welcome back, friends and family! It has been about 15 months since my last update. 

In searching for a theme, I settled on the idea of how I continue to try and find some way to balance my life as things continue to progress over time. Let me start with some good news.  

In March, I had my 7th birthday, celebrating my triumphant return home from the hospital seven years ago having defeated cancer!  Wait...hmmmm. Maybe it wasn't quite like that, but I am still alive after seven years following my transplant, so that IS good news, right? I am still working, we are enjoying redoing our entire yard right now to reduce water use and change its look, and we just found out that we have a new grand baby who will be joining us in several months. I also finished my sabbatical having accomplished a fair amount, although not all that I had wanted to, and me and my loving wife are still together after 37 years. These are all awesome, and I am grateful for all of them. 

So what's the latest? 

Well, not as good as I had hoped. My latest blood draw, from the start of May, showed an M-spike of 1.2; this is the highest since I was diagnosed which was 1.7. After my transplant (2015), my M-spike was 0.3, so I have moved a bit up and am getting closer to when I was diagnosed. On the other hand, my annual MRI in early January did not show any major tumors yet. Wahoo!  

On the other hand....my white blood cells counts in November and in May were both the lowest they have been in years, my red blood cell counts were stable between November and May, but also the lowest they have been since 2019 (that's as far back as I can easily see on my tracker right now); the bottom of normal is 4.7 and my counts were 3.86, and my average since my transplant is 4.14 over the years. So, my ability to fight off infections is less than it has been, and my anemia is worse than it's been for a long time. Maybe this will help:  

Lab                    7 year average            Bottom of "normal"                Me in May, 2022

M-spike                    .84                                    0.0                                            1.2

White cells             3.06                                    4.3                                            2.16

Red cells                4.14                                    4.7                                            3.86

In my last blog, I also noted that we have been watching my light chains from my kidneys. Well, those haven't looked that good, either. Focusing mostly on the ratio because that is what the doctors say is the most important indicator, my last two chain labs show 1.79 ratio or above; the top of normal is 1.65.  So we are going to keep watching it. 

Here's the other thing: I can feel it. I am more tired than I have been in a long time. I am having, as a result, more difficulty concentrating especially as the day goes on. This is with 7.5 - 8.5 hours of sleep a night. My back hurts more than it has in a while, and I am having more "side" problems than I have in years. 

I made a big decision recently -- while I love, love mentoring students in research and helping them develop the powerful skills that will help them in their futures, I don't think I can do it anymore. I took on one more student this summer (just one) and will no longer be mentoring students after I finish with the projects I have going on right now. I will still do scholarly work -- but more as a consultant, editor, and not as the person leading the project. I have also gone to my department chair and dean and asked for support with a student Instructional Assistant every semester and possibly reducing my work load a bit (this is still being evaluated on the basis of health accommodations). 

I am very grateful for my life, my Savior, grateful to my wife, grateful for my seven years and hopefully more to come, grateful to my department and colleagues and UVU for their support. I could not do what I am doing without all of that support. But it was time to step back, acknowledge my body and how I'm feeling, and to shift towards those things I can still do well and get done. I don't necessarily believe right now that it will get better, although in my 7 year wait, there are SO many more options once I do have to go back on meds -- and I am grateful for that, too, and for my doctors who track and watch my health. This is my search for balance -- to find a place where I can try to get the support I need to carry on and continue to contribute to the world while acknowledging the reality of my situation. 

As the British government said in its poster before WWII:  Keep calm and carry on!  And thank you to all of you reading this -- I love you and am grateful for your support as well!  I hope to give you a next update a little closer in time to this one.   Wish me luck!