BUT.... today is a good day !!..... and I'll tell you why....
I have just got back from seeing Dr Ben.... and he is "stoked" a good Aussie word.... but these are his exact words... "I'm stoked, actually I'm REALLY STOKED" and he was smiling !! Now a smile from a specialist Dr is a very rare occurrence. They are serious, straight faced, show-no-emotion types. They do not give you hope, but do not give you dread either. Just facts. But today Dr Ben was smiling, and was happy and he made me feel like I was his best performing student that he had at the moment !!..... the reason...? my Kappa results...... you may remember that my last results were received after I had seen him, so I wasn't 100% sure that they were real as I hadn't had the chance to actually discuss them with him. I had gone from a reading of 144 to 29.8. And today's results were around the same at 31.9 !! All other readings were good too. Nothing to worry about. Calcium good, red platelets etc etc all good. He was SMILING !!!! He looks nice when he smiles... he should definitely do it more often !! So the next stage is now about to start.... this bit is still a little hazy. We sorted out my pills for the next few weeks and he suggested that I finish off the chemo Cycle (6) that I'm on, and then just run out of Dexamethasone and Cycloblastin, and after that just continue on with the Thalidomide. This is huge for me... I can't remember how it feels anymore not to have ups and downs from Dexa & Cyclo.... it will be interesting.
However.... before the drugs have the chance to wear off I get to go and meet the new specialist... Dr Brad. He will be doing the Autologous Stem Cell Replacement. This is where I'm still a little hazy. Dr Ben spoke briefly about the process but both Dirk & I were still a little lost abojtit all. I guess when I meet Dr Brad things will be a little clearer. Dr Ben talked about the day long chemo infusion at the start of the process, and the chemo that I go on, on the lead up to the harvesting of my bone marrow from my blood. But I'm still not sure how it all happens exactly. And even less clear on the timing if how it all happens. But for now, I don't have another appointment with Dr Ben. It's all over to Dr Brad until I hear otherwise. The appointment is on June 8th with him. It will probably be 3-4 months before I see Dr Ben again..... this is it..... the beginning of the next stage. Watch this space.....
And so... to the boring stuff that makes up the better part of my life.... day to day grind !! The recovery from our regional manager's week has been looong. In fact it hasn't really happened yet.(the recovery that it) I'm on annual leave as of Friday, so this is when I will finally sit back, sigh and take a break. This week has been as full of meetings and deadlines as last week. And I haven't actually met all of them. I've managed to make it to work on time (by 9am most days) managed to attend all of the meetings. But by attending all the meetings, I don't get to do the work required in between. Aaahhhhh the joys of management I guess !! Tomorrow is the last day to complete anything that needs to be done before next week. And if it doesn't get done..... too bad !! I'm out of there. Off to Broome and will be basking by the pool drinking cocktails and riding camels at sunset before buying pearls and not worrying about work emails or deadlines for five whole days !!! We booked this holiday last October. When cricket season had just begun and we were looking to the next free weekend we would get ..... long before Christmas, cancer & chemo...... a lifetime ago !! And it is now only a few short hours away.... and I must say... I'm a little bit excited !!
So apart from that, not much more to report at the moment. Good news all round from this side. I'm off the Dexa's today so have just about fallen into a heap now. Completely exhausted and about to pass out. So this will be a short and sweet update. Hopefully tomorrow will be productive enough to get as much finished as I can before we leave. Our trusty house sitter will be in to look after our precious pups. Without him, we just wouldn't go away anywhere..... My Thalidomide are now beginning to kick in so I will sign off before I gabble on about nothing even more. Good Night all xxx