J. Michael Jones

Happy 4th. Quick update for those interested. I hope that you had a great July 4th.

I had some good news yesterday that, unexpectedly, my kidney function labs came back much (relatively) improved. Again, normal kidney function, measured by gfr (glomerular filtration rate), is >60. I started in January 2019 at 4. Dialysis must be used if it is below 16. I was on dialysis until May 2019 and we did a trial off. Since then my gfr has been a mouse’s whisper above needing dialysis, gfr of 18-20. It has been stable for 12 months without improvement. Then my last test from Friday came back at a whopping 24.6. Still, far below normal, but it pushes me much farther from the line that requires dialysis. Dialysis is one of my biggest fears because when I was doing it, it made me feel horrible 24-7. Secondly, if I go on dialysis, it would shorten my life to months (based on statistics). Multiple Myeloma and dialysis is a bad combination for reasons that are not clear.

In a follow up of my last update, I’ve had some success getting my tests done. I was finally able to persuade my primary care physician to do my T and B cell counts to see if my immune is mature enough to start my childhood vaccinations. If those counts come back adequate, I will start those immunizations.

I am having a bone marrow done on July 9th. There are several other tests that I need to stage my cancer but have not been able to get anyone here to schedule them. I was able to make a tentative 1 year follow up back at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance for the last week of September and they should do the remaining tests then that were due the first week of June.