I am day + 3 of the stem cell transplant. Things have gone relatively well, although I am now descending, as expected, into the most difficult time, where my old bone marrow is burning out and the new hasn’t started. This time of the deepest misery should last 10 days. My kidneys did take a…

First two bags of stem cells infused. Tomorrow, we will infuse two more. Things have gone well except I (typically) developed side effects from the melphanin, chemo. So, I’m feeling a little rough with the typicals of nausea, diarrhea and general feeling like chemo-shit. This may get a lot worse of the next week before…

Finished my two rounds of harsh chemo at the University of Washington Medical Center. Doing okay (the real side effects from it does not typically kick in for about 5 days). Had to have a blood transfusion during the middle of the night because my blood counts got so low. First time I’ve ever had…

I sat in the waiting room of the lab, surrounded by at least 15 other people, each of us waiting our turns, sitting in soft, brown chairs. They call the last names, one at a time. Being a cancer center, means that we were all there for the same reason, to check on some aspect…

This is a saying that is used in Christian circles. Its roots are in several Bible verses, mostly in the King James version of the Bible, where someone is told to “gird up their loins.” The most famous of these verses are in the book of Job, where Job is told several times by God…

My potassium was down a whopping .7 points (down from 5.3 to 4.6) overnight. This is a very good sign that dialysis is over. I’ve missed 4 dialysis sessions so far and feel great. If I can go one more week and stay out of trouble, the nephrologist will turn my central catheter over to…

Real life is messy. If I were living in a Hallmark movie (my least favorite movies) then the results of my lab tests would have been overwhelmingly positive and clear. But there is good news with caution. My potassium level did come down by three decimal points. Not much, but moving in the right direction…

Anyone who has suffered from cancer, plus a few other diseases, are familiar with the waiting game for the numbers from tests. In these cases, one digit, one way or the other, could mean that you are living or dying. It could mean if your cancer is growing out of control or going into remission.…

Denise and I were granted a 48 hour pass to come home to Anacortes and to pretend that things were normal. It was fantastic! So many things we got to do which we love, dinner with family, hikes, paddle board, campfires and deep breaths of Fidalgo Island air. An unexpected treat was that the person…

In a few weeks, I will have the opportunity to experience something truly unique. My bone marrow, the marrow I was born with, will be erased with powerful chemotherapy. We hope that it erases the part of the bone marrow producing IgG plasma cells. That’s where the cancer lives. When my own stem cells are…