I am a data-driven person, as is my doctor. I’m glad she is because statistics don’t lie . . .  ever. With that said, I have a growing conviction that hope makes a difference in outcome. You may say, “Duh.” But scientifically, it is not so clear, mostly because there hasn’t been a lot of…

I will not do a play by play account of what is going on. As soon as I have more information, I will do a detailed posting here as this is where my family, including my kids, get their information. I will just say that things are going well. Denise and I are mentally exhausted…

I don’t mean to dash your hopes, but I am not writing this because I have received some good news to report. I guess you can say that getting into the stem cell transplant program (so far as the verdict is not completely out yet) is good news. Otherwise, my life expectancy would be half…

Stem Cell Transplant Tomorrow I enter the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s autologous (meaning, using my own stem cells) transplantation program. It is one of the first in the world and highly regarded. I will give a tentative schedule. This week, I will start my work up, including exams, labs, bone marrow biopsy, MRIs and bone…

In case you don’t know, I am . . . or maybe “was” is the better term, a medical care provider before all this shit happened. I am part of the “system.” Now, I am part of the system as a patient and the view is very different than what I had expected. I had…

I said that I would post today’s labs, once I’ve run them through my algorithm to follow  my renal function because my kids do check this daily. I will add a caveat, that creatinine can fluctuate widely based on diet (for example lots of red meat can raise it) so take one data point with…

I just wanted to post, out of excitement, that my renal function has started to improve again (if one lab draw counts) after being at a plateau for three weeks. See the latest graph below. Again, this is an algorithm that I’ve created, which captures the rise of one toxin, creatinine, per hour with a…

I came across a study today, which was published a few weeks ago and clarifies this with even more recent information. This is more important, now that I am scheduled with Stem Cell transplant. MM, without stem cell transplant and chemotherapy, the median life expectancy is 50 months from diagnosis. MM with stem cell transplant,…

I just got off the phone with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. I have been pre-approved to enter their stem-cell transplant program starting in two weeks. I will enter the program on May 1st. On that day, they will start the process of harvesting my own stem-stem cells. For the next few weeks my own,…

Introduction Okay, the reason I’m writing so soon isn’t that I have major news to report, but in response to a question I have been asked many times in the past few days. The question is not asked in the form the title here reflects, but usually more like, “Mike, you’re going to beat this…