J. Michael Jones

I’m posting so soon because this week was a bit confusing and now we have some direction. I’m not narcissistic enough to think that people want a daily update, but I think my kids do.

Beside my labs not being scheduled, it became a bit confusing today because my next round of chemo was not scheduled either. Today we got that resolved. I will be starting round 3 of chemo on Monday.

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I did get two sets of labs done in two consecutive days. This allowed me to get a snapshot of my renal function. Overall, my two toxins, creatinine and BUN fell into the normal range (bloods drawn immediately after dialysis). However, by yesterday, those two toxins had risen, meaning my kidneys are still not clearing the toxins on their own (I think I said that yesterday).

I also have labs in the “cooker” in California that will look at my cancerous proteins. The results of those should be back by Monday. I think I mentioned how important these are, because if they are down (which is an 80% chance), then we are on the right path with chemo. If they are not down, not only is more damage being done to my kidneys, but it means that my chemo is not working. We have had several weeks of bad news and I am hoping that this will be different this time. It would really lift our spirits. So, pray for my kidneys to return to function so I can get off dialysis (same old hope) and for the chemo to be working.

One of the disappointing things about my kidneys toxins now being normal (thanks to dialysis) is that my constellation of symptoms is no better. I have a lot of neurological symptoms, heart palpations with minimal exertion and now the neck pain is back as well as a bad cough. I am so sick of these. It is not like a normal problem that gets better with time. I was hoping all those symptoms would resolve when the kidney function reached the normal area. I still hope that these symptoms would get better in time but my hold out for them getting better when my kidney toxins were removed, was not been realized.

I’ve had people say to me that I should try to focus on the good news. My point, recently, there hasn’t been a lot. If my kidneys came back, I will do Michael Jackson’s moon walk! I’m not wanting bad news, really I’m not!. But the only good news that I can come up with right is that I’m alive. I am happy about that and for that I am gracious. However, that’s a pretty low bar for good news. Mike

I will be back when my labs are back, unless something else happens.  Mike