12/20/2010 Don't we live in the Desert?

We spent the night at Coral Canyon last Thursday and then on Friday we met with Dr. Te to go over some of the numbers from the Nov. blood results as most of the numbers from the 12/16 blood tests won't be available until this week. He told us the blood results that he and Salt Lake are looking at before I can move forward the rest of my treatments. The good news is that all the numbers are still moving in the right directions, but one of the things they are looking for is for some of the numbers to plateau at certain places and if they keep moving then the medicine is still working and I will have to keep up with the Revlimid. I am between my round 5 and 6 and will start round 6 of the Revlimid on Christmas evening or the day after.

It was a good meeting with Dr. Te and I think we have a better idea of when we might be heading for Salt Lake. Another good news we got was that my kidneys are working pretty well, so we don't have to worry right now about that as a problem. I will try to get this month's blood report numbers either this week if they are available and Dr. Te's Office is open or we'll get them next week after Christmas. I also had my Arida bone medicine treatment on Friday and Patty had to work for a while.

We went out and saw mom and dad for a while Friday afternoon after we were done with what we needed to get done, we took Josh's dog Addie with us as we had been watching her since Thanksgiving for him. It was a nice visit with mom and dad and then we hit the road to head back to Vegas. Later Friday Josh made it to our house for Christmas and New Years.

We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year in 2011. 2010 was a very different year for our family. We had a wonderful experience with Amanda and Ryan getting married and everything leading up to and after that great time, and then we had our challenges. We are looking forward to a very good 2011 and are hoping for the same or better for all of you.

Merry Christmas

12/16/2010 Heading for St. George again

We took a trip to St. George on Thursday to give blood and we also both had appointments with a audiology doctor (hearing) to see how we are doing, the good news is that Patty has pretty good hearing and the other news is that I am pretty bad. I am scheduled to be fitted for devices the week after Christmas as they had to order the ones I'm getting. We went to Dr. Forbes because it was where Ruthann had gone and she is very happy with her devices.

I also did my every 4 week blood sampling as well as I had to keep a 24 hour specimen for them.

We had the Coral Canyon house to ourselves - which is not normal, but Lance and Suzy and family flew in from Florida so the Dickman family all headed for Parowan to spend time with them.

12/10/2010 Checking In

I have been chastised for not sharing my status a little more often, so here goes. I am in the second week of round 5 of the Revlimid medicine. Everything is going well, the medicine builds up inside and so the fatigue and nausea get a little more noticeable as the 21 days wear on during each round of the Revlimid. This time is no exception, not to any extreme, just enough to know that I have something going on. I'm still working about 3/4 of the time and am grateful that my bosses and co-workers are very accommodating of my circumstance, they have all been great through this.

Patty and I went to the NFR on Monday night with Amanda and Ryan, it was a very good show and we all enjoyed it very much, we saw some real good scores posted in all the competitions.

We are getting ready to go back to St. George next week and will post more of that later.

11/29/2010 After Thanksgiving weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend - even though many of us came down with cold and sinus issues we dealt with for most of the weekend. It was cold in Parowan - but not as cold as Panguitch and other places in northern Utah.

Amanda and Ryan came up to Coral Canyon on Friday and we all went ATV riding with Bruce, Cara, Chris and Tyler on Saturday out on the the Arizona Strip. It was a great ride until the front passed, the clouds came over and it turned off very cold for the last hour or so back to the trucks and trailers. Bruce led us on some exploring trails to areas that hadn't had too many tracks before until we found the power line road that took us home. It ended up being a 3-1/2 to 4 hour trip and other than recouping from fighting our colds and a little soreness the next day, everyone had a great time. We saw some side trails we want to go back to take next time.

I had a very good weekend. I had very little fatigue issues because I was nearly a week off my meds so didn't have any issues. I started the Revlimid again on Saturday evening and to my weekly Dex last night at bed time. I'm about over my cold, but Josh and Matt were just getting to the deep part of theirs, hope they recover quickly.

I got my blood results faxed to me this morning from Dr. Te's Office, the number everyone is looking at dropped again to 1.45, down from 1.69 the last time. The 1.45 was from 11/18 at the end of Round 4. my next blood draw is now scheduled for 12/16 at the end of this round 5, hopefully everything keeps dropping. On 12/16 we are going to press Dr. Te a little harder to find out what numbers have to be where before we can begin to talk seriously about going to Salt Lake for the transplant, hopefully he will answer those questions for us when we go up on 12/16 & 12/17.

11/22/2010 Here comes Thanksgiving

We had a good trip to St. George and got to see mom and dad and Bruce and Cara for dinner to celebrate my birthday - thanks to all that wished me well on facebook.

I got my Arida treatment and was suppose to see the doctor to talk about my blood results and what comes next, but he was tied up doing a bone biopsy on another patient so we saw the nurse practitioner instead. I'll order a faxed copy of my blood results next week to see where the numbers are going. The treatment went pretty well, we ended up staying in Coral Canyon on Friday night and then went home on Saturday. I finished round 4 of the Revlimid on Friday night and I'm looking forward to a week off to recoup a little of my strength and stamina in preparation for starting the next round 5 at the end of next week. this round has run me down a little bit, I've had more fatigue and nausea than before, I assume it's because it builds up a residual in my body that keeps fighting the bad, but also drags me down some too.

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving to spend time with everyone. I'll do another update after the weekend. Thanks again for every one's good thoughts and prayers on my behalf and I wish all of you the best of times for this upcoming Holiday and Christmas season.

11/18/2010 Long Time no Blog

I am really lousy at this, it shouldn't be to hard to type a few lines every few days, but it is a struggle for me for some reason.

It's that time of the month again, we'll be heading for St. George this afternoon first for the blood taking tonight and then for the Arida appointment tomorrow and a meeting with Dr. Te to go over the progress of my last blood tests. Last month the number that they want to be around 1.0 and was 2.3 the previous month went down to 1.69 so everything is still moving in the right direction. Hopefully this month's number will keep going down.

I'm in the 3rd week of round 4 of the Revlimid and I can always tell when it's the 3rd week because the fatigue factor builds up, next week is my week off, so I hope to rebound a little bit to be ready for the next round.

We are planning on seeing mom and dad and Bruce and Cara tonight, that will be good.

10/29/2010 Went to Phoenix instead of Dr. Te

It's Friday Oct. 29th and we should be in St. George going to see Dr. Te to get the latest blood results - instead we headed for Phoenix - actually Glendale Az to see Josh for the weekend, we drove down yesterday and got to go over the new bridge that bypasses Hoover Dam which opened up a couple of weeks ago.

The trip over the bridge is a little anti-climatic. You go onto the new road just after the casino on the Nevada side and then before you know it you're on the bridge, but you really have to know what you're looking for because the barrier rails are so tall you cannot even begin to see the dam below, about the only way to verify where you are is to know that the power line towers hanging off the side of the canyon lead down to the dam.

We spent a very nice weekend with Josh and Addie, we went to a museum and saw some very interesting exhibits on the Native American Tribes of Indians that come from Arizona. We headed back to Vegas on Sunday around noon.

10/23/2010 Back from St. George

We went to St. George Thursday evening, I gave the vials of blood, six I think and then met Bruce and Cara for dinner, it's a little strange only seeing them a couple times a month instead of twice a week like we did this summer. Friday we got up and Patty took me to Dr. Te's office to drop me off for my Arida treatment while she has to go to work at Smith's for a while. I did my treatment, everything went well.

We met with mom and dad for lunch at Applebees, they came down for a Costco run to stock the house and trailer before they move the trailer to Hurricane at the end of the month. It was good to see them and we should see them a little more since they will be close to Coral Canyon all winter.

We headed back to Vegas in the afternoon and made it back OK. I'm scheduled to go back up for the blood results next Friday.

10/18/2010 Weekend Report

The trip to Reno went very well. My stamina held up better than I thought that it would and it was good to see some people that we don't get to see more that 2 or 3 times each year. We have a very good surveyor's association in Nevada, but it's hard with the economy and the devastation to our ranks that has happened.

I'm not sure what I picked up, but I woke up Sunday morning with plugged ears which pretty much makes me about 80 percent deaf with my already compromised hearing. It's Monday morning now and I'm staying home today to try to get over it. I did take the Dex Sunday night and slept through the night pretty well.

Round 3 of the Revlimid gets over this Wednesday evening so I'll have to get busy ordering the prescription for Round 4 to begin next week, I'll need to call Christi at Dr. Te's Office to get busy on the order. We are scheduled to go to St. George this week for blood tests on Thursday night and then the Arida bone medicine on Friday, I'll let everyone know how they go.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and patience with me, I will try to be better about reporting things in the future. As I mentioned above, I know we'll have a Round 4 out patient protocol, not sure what will happen after that and the time frame we're looking at for Salt Lake. We'll keep you informed.

10/14/2010 Good Week

I had a very good week mostly. I had mentioned already that I try to take the Dex on Sunday night late usually, this is because it gets in my system and starts the steroid activity Monday morning and usually by Monday night the peak has passed and I get some sleep. Well, this time I forgot on Sunday night and didn't take the Dex until Monday morning, it took a while to activate and then kept me up about half of Monday night so I want to try harder to remember to take them on Sunday night - it just works better that way.

On the up side, I had three full days of work this week on Monday, Tuesday and n Wednesday I was in a meeting until nearly 5:00 pm with no bad effects. It's Thursday and I'm on the way to Reno for the night to attend a couple of surveyor's meetings with the Lahanton (Reno) Chapter surveyors and then a full day meeting with our state surveyor association board meeting on Friday which I'm hoping will go OK with my stamina. I'm the Southern Nevada Chapter President this year and have missed several meetings and activities due to appointments and side effects so it's good that I can make this group of meetings. It's nice in Reno this time of year and it's still too hot in Las Vegas for being the middle of October.

10/6/2010 Just Checking In

It's Wednesday and the Dex is holding me up this week, I'm starting to crash a little, but not too bad. I normally take the Dex late Sunday night and it lasts two full days and sometimes a little into Wednesday to keep me working for nearly 3 full days before crashing and definitely not making it until Thursday afternoon at work. I'm grateful it works as well as it does, I don't think that it why they give it to me, but after all the other side effects I get, I'll take one like this every now and again.

I'm about a week into Round 3 of the Revlimid and other than a fair amount of heartburn and reflux not too much to report on the side effects side on things. I have to be careful what and when I eat in the evening to minimize the effects of the Revlimid.

10/2/2010 Round 2 Test Results

Well, I have to admit what all of you know. I am a terrible blogger, I don't know why I don't sit down a couple times a week and write two or three sentences but I guess I think there is nothing to tell and something will happen that will make it worth while, don't know if I'll get any better, but I'd like to.

Anyway, we went to Coral Canyon on Thursday evening 9/30 and spent the night, got to see Bruce and Cara and Tyler. I started Round 3 of the Revlimid treatment Thursday night. Friday morning we got up and went to see Dr. Te. The news was good, but of course not as good as we wanted. The one set of numbers that Dr. Petersen from LDS Hospital was looking at was the IGA or IGM (I never can remember). After Round 1 it hadmade a significant drop to 2.9 and they want it to be around 1.0 to be almost normal. Well the number we have after Round 2 is 2.3 which is good, but it didn't drop as much as we'd hoped it would. Dr. Te explained it that the more there is, the easier for the medicine to get more of it, as the number drops, we'll make progress percentage wise, but the numbers won't drop as fast. This probably means that we'll have at least a Round 4 of Revlimid before we can think of going to Salt Lake.

Tomorrow night I'll do another round of Dex and see how it takes me through the week.

9/29/2010 Just Checking In

I've had a pretty good weekend and good week, been off the Revlimid since last Thursday and will start it up again this Thursday because believe it or not, they actually shipped me the prescription on time this round. I have to thank Christi at Dr. Te's Office for staying on them and getting things moving.

Like I said, had a pretty good weekend, caught up on my rest and then after my Dex day on Monday and the hold over to Tuesday (yesterday) I don't seem to be crashing too bad today, we'll see later today I guess. I'm suppose to get the re-fill on the Lovenox tomorrow and between that and the Revlimid, that should hold me over for Round 3 of this protocol. We are all hoping that the blood numbers are going to be where everyone wants them and we can start planning for the Salt Lake treatment, but that remains to be seen.

I have been able to work full time this week which has been good since we're short staffed and I've been able to take care of a few things.

I'll check in again this weekend after our visit with Dr. Te to let everyone know how the blood numbers are doing. Hope everyone is well.

9/24/2010 Up early to go to St. George

Today we got up pretty early to travel to St. George to get my Arida treatment. Patty had to go to Phoenix on Thursday and didn't get back until it was too late to go up last night. We left the house about 6:00 am and stopped at the IHC lab to give blood before going to Dr. Te's Office for the treatment.

The labs are the extended version because we finished Round 2 of the Revlimid and these labs will tell whether the protocol is still working as well as it did for Round 1, we'll find out next Friday how the blood numbers are doing.

The Arida treatment went well, it took them a couple of tries to get a good vein but they did and I spent the two hours in the chair getting the bone strengthening medicine. It was a typical Friday at Dr. Te's Office with 3 -4 people in the treatment room.

We drove back to Vegas and got home around 2:00 - quick trip. We'll be hitting the road next Thursday to go up for my appointment to see Dr. Te and go over the blood results next Friday morning.

9/21/2010 The end of Revlimid Round 2

Coming to the end of Round 2 of the Revlimid Protocol, I can tell I'm getting to the end because this week's Dex didn't prop me up near as much as last week or the week before.

Not too much to talk about the treatments, the Revlimid seems to build up and compound to the end of the 21 days, so I'm looking forward to the end of this round so I get a chance to recover and bounce back from the side effects.

9/13/2010 The Weekly Routine

Since switching to the Revlimid, Lovenox and once a week Dex, it's quite a bit different schedule and routine, normally we only go to St. George twice a month, once to get the Arida bone medicine that is still intravenous in Dr. Te's office and thence once to visit with Dr. Te to go over the blood results to see how I'm doing.

I've played around a little and found that if I take the Dex late Sunday night before bedtime, it will keep me moving through all of Monday and through most of Tuesday which gives me two nearly complete work days before I start losing time to fatigue on Wednesdays and more on each Thursday afternoon. I'm hoping this round that this routine will help me battle the fatigue more than the first round when by the 3rd week it took me down most days and I didn't get a full day at work for about 1-1/2 week.

I didn't know how I would adjust to it, but I have a great respect for anyone that has to give themselves a shot each day. The Lovenox has become a chore I do each day that starts with a pinch.

Any excuse will work, but there are basically two reasons I don't blog on a regular basis, first because the routine if quite boring and other than a little heartburn, not too much happens and second because the fatigue hits me and I don't have the energy or ambition to look at my computer. I will try to do better, especially as things get closer to Salt Lake.

9/4-9/6/2010 We had a Great Weekend

Labor Day Weekend had a special twist to it this year. We always go to Parowan to celebrate with Bruce and Cara to ride ATVs and enjoy family.

This year we also celebrated the 60th wedding anniversary of Fred and Claire Dalton, our mom and dad. We gave them a big party 10 years ago on their 50th, this year they said they wanted a small affair so the eight of us took them out to dinner on Saturday night.

Mike convinced them to come down from the mountain and so he and Beverly drove them to Rusty's Steakhouse up Cedar Canyon where the rest of us met them for a good dinner and better conversation. Everyone enjoyed their food and the atmosphere there.

If you facebook, Beverly already posted some pictures of after we came out of Rusty's.

The rest of the weekend went real well, both from a visiting family standpoint and from my personal experience, since I was just starting my Revlimid I had pretty good stamina and was able to stay up and enjoy the time with everyone.

Monday morning brought the mandatory breakfast with the Parowan Lions Club and the church steps picture of the family members that could make it there. Between Cara and Bruce's family and our family and friends we had about 20 people most of the weekend, I still don't know where Bruce and Cara put everyone at night after Patty and I and Amanda, Ryan and Matt went over to stay at Mom and Dad's house.

After breakfast and the picture, we all made our way down the street to watch the parade, we had set out some chairs the night before to save our space so it was nice, it actually started off quite cool but soon warmed up as the sun came out. It was nice seeing the excitement in the eyes of the kids, we had Danella and Annie's twins with us as well as Nathan and Jacob Pectol, more candy was thrown than I can remember for several years, the look on all the kid's faces and the helping of them by moms, sisters, and others was worth the trip.

We spent the rest of the day visiting, eating and eventually saying goodbye to everyone that came to visit until it was time for us to come home too. As I said, It was a great weekend.

9/2/2010 The Meds finally make it Here!

Finally got my Revlimid this morning, only about a week longer than it should have been. Oh well, told Dr. Te about it, he didn't seem to excited, will just push everything back about a week. Started the 2nd round Thursday evening.

Friday morning 9/3 went to see Dr. Te, I got the results of the blood work we did last week, it was all good news. All the numbers we were looking at moved in the right directions. We hope they keep moving the right ways and they will be checked again at the end of round 2 of the Revlimid.

I feel pretty good at the start of the 2nd round, hopefully the fatigue will not be as bad this time as it was the 1st round.

8/30/2010 Still waiting for Meds

This Revlimid has to be one of the most closely guarded drugs you can try to buy. I knew they were proud of it from the money it costs us, but even after the paperwork we had to fill out the first time I didn't realize how they protect it. It's Monday night and I still don't have the drugs I should have gotten last week to start the new cycle of Revlimid last Saturday. I hope a few days off cycle isn't hurting the whole month of running the cycle.

I got a call late Monday afternoon from Dotti at Dr. Te's Office telling me that finally they have shipped and I should get them tomorrow (Tuesday 8/31), so if that holds true, this cycle will be 8/31 to 9/26 and we'll get to see what the 2nd cycle will do to my blood numbers, we're all hoping that 3 cycles is what it will take to get where LDS hospital wants me to be.

I'm also scheduled to get the new shipment of Lovenox tomorrow which I take every day whether or not I'm taking Revlimid, with luck I'll get both of them like I'm suppose to. I do have to figure out what to do with a full sharps container that has all the spent syringe applicators from the past month in it, I'll have to ask someone.

8/27/2010 Friday - the Week off the Meds

The Dex experiment worked pretty well, I took them Sunday night around 8:00 and they lasted for me until into Tuesday. I got more work hours Monday and Tuesday than I had for a couple of weeks. Wednesday I started down again and by Thursday I had to go home and sleep by mid-morning although I do think I was coming down with something that helped my demise.

We went to St. George Thursday evening and I stopped at the Lab to get my blood taken for the full blood panel to see Dr. Te next Friday (9/3), what I didn't know was that it also includes a 24 hour urine sample, they gave me the collection jar and I have to finish that sometime this week before we go back up for that appointment.

Friday morning we went to Dr. Te's Office so I could get my monthly Arida bone treatment, it went well and Patty was able to take care of a couple of thing that she needed to do before coming back for me. That afternoon she went to Cedar to work and I stayed at Coral Canyon in case I had some side effects from the Arida, I don't think I did, I just slept a little and watched TV while she was gone although I didn't have much of an appetite when we stopped for dinner heading back to Vegas.

8/23/2010 Trying to Juggle Meds a little

Last week was not a great week, nothing bad happened, it was just that for my work week I couldn't seem to stay awake past about 10:30 am on any day so I didn't get a lot of working hours in. I would get up, go to work and begin my day and then run out of steam by mid-morning and have to come home. Dr. Te suggested I play around with when I take the Dex to see if I could get a couple of good days so that is what I'm trying this week by taking it Sunday night before I went to bed - I may need to back that up a little since I'm up at 4:00 writing this blog.

I completed the first cycle of the Revlimid yesterday and will be off it until next Saturday when I begin the second cycle. I definitely have more side effects, fatigue, heart burn and they seem to be some what cumulative as the cycle runs on so I'm really looking forward to this week to try to get back close to normal before starting the next cycle. I don't know what the combination of being off cycle and coming off the Dex on Wednesday will do to me, guess I'll have to wait and see.

I'm scheduled to get a full blood panel this week to see how the first cycle of Revlimid is doing for me, we're all hoping it's making progress on the right things, so that after a couple more cycles I'll be ready for the transplant.

8/20/2010 A Word or Two on the Wedding

Last Saturday was a great day, and if it wasn't for several of us being late getting to the temple for the sealing ceremony, Amanda's hair dresser not showing up, Amanda's bouquet being delivered to the wrong location and a couple of other small issues it would have been perfect. But I have to give all the credit in the world to my little girl. She may have wanted to go bridezilla on the inside - but none of that made it to the surface, she was every bit the beautiful bride and put that aside to have a great time all day.

The temple wedding/sealing ceremony was very nice, and when it was over we all went outside and took family pictures. Then everyone was invited to a luncheon put on by Ryan's parents at one of our chapels where we ate with the bride and groom. Then we all went home to rest until the reception.

I had tried an experiment, I took my Dex about 8:00 pm Friday night hoping that they would kick in and help get me through the day. They did what they were suppose to do and lasted until well into the night.

The reception started out with a ring ceremony out on the lawn at Silverstone, I walked my daughter down the isle and her singles ward bishop said some very nice words, it was a good thing. That was the start of a very nice 3 hour party for about 150 of Amanda and Ryan's close friends and all our family. There are lots of details I'm leaving out, but overall it was a very good night, then the happy couple left to start their honeymoon.

8/15/2010 Sunday again, after the wedding

Here it is Sunday again, I meant to write something during the week but didn't make it. I'll try to do better.

I didn't have a great week, but it wasn't terrible either. Josh drove me up to my appointment with Dr. Te on Wednesday, I had a slight fever and he gave me some Cipro antibiotics to help with that. I had some chills and kept the fever Wednesday night and into Thursday, so I stayed home from work to try to recover to make sure I would be OK for the wedding on Saturday. By Friday I was feeling quite a bit better.

While at the appointment, we went over the results of the bone biopsy and latest blood tests, they confirmed that the Velcade was not very effective working on a couple of the critical areas that need to be improved a lot before going to Salt Lake. I have another round of complete blood work that will be run in a couple of weeks to look at what a full month on Revlimid, Dex and Lovenox will be doing for me. We will be hopeful that they are working in the right direction.

I'll do a separate posting to talk about the wedding. After a few hiccups, it went very well and Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are now in Maui on their honeymoon.

8/8/2010 A good week

I haven't blogged because there really wasn't anything too much to talk about. I had a good week and as the week went on I was getting over any of the side effects of last week's Arida treatment that I had. I still get tired, but other than a little heart burn or reflux, I don't seem to be developing any side effects from the Lovenox and Revlimid. I took my one day of Dex on Saturday this week and other than getting up a little early this morning, I slept through the night and woke up feeling pretty good today, good enough to make it to all 3 hours of church today without having to take a long nap after to recover.

We are just under a week to go until Amanda's wedding, I hope I can feel this good next Saturday, it will make the day much better for everyone - not having to worry about me.

I feel pretty much like myself today, as I have for the past couple of days, which doesn't happen too often. I go up to St. George for a doctor's appointment with Dr. Te this Wednesday, but it's just to make sure everything is going well, no treatments. Josh will drive me up, probably Tuesday night so I can give labs again, then we'll see Dr. Te on Wednesday and head back to Vegas. I should get the reports on where I am, or rather where my body is in respect to all the numbers they want it to be at in 2-3 months from now.

8/2/2010 On the new medicines

The Lovenox came in on Saturday delivery so Saturday night I began taking the new medicine Protocol - 21 days on - 7 days off - of Lovenox self shot each evening and then Revlimid 25 mg pill before bed as I was advised to do to minimize the potential side effects. At the same time I'm also changing the Dex regiment to only one day a week, I took it yesterday Sunday morning so that could explain why this post is at 3:30 am, I will probably play with the day so that if each one gets me up, it won't be on a back to work night, maybe I'll take it each Saturday morning instead.

I had a good weekend, I think the sedative and coming off the Dex last week finally ran out and I started to stay up more and more, we went to a movie on Saturday afternoon, I managed to stay up for the entire movie, we saw the "Dinner for Schmucks" which was wrong in many ways but was very funny so it was hard to sleep and laugh at the same time.

We had the kids over for dinner on Sunday night and did some burger grilling, Josh did a lot of the cooking and they turned out good. It's only 2 weeks until Amanda's wedding and some nerves are beginning to show all around, we are looking forward to Saturday August 14th and beyond.

I took the second day of the new meds last night, so far no side effects to speak of, I hope to lose some of the lower leg ache I had been feeling with the Velcade, we'll have to see. I don't have any doctor's appointments this week, but need to get some labs done. I will probably need to make a quick trip to St. George sometime this week to get some standing lab work done and then after the appointment with Dr. Te next week make arrangements that every other week that I don't have to go to St. George, I'll find a lab down here to get the off week labs. They have to monitor my blood fairly closely because of all the new meds for the next several weeks, so I'll have to make the decision on how to handle that after the wedding.

7/30/2010 Back from St. George Again

The bone biopsy on Wednesday went very well, Josh took me up on Tuesday night and then to Dr. Te's Office on Wednesday morning, they got me all set up to go and then gave me the knock out drugs so they could drill in for the biopsy sample. It must have worked since I don't remember anything for a couple of hours when I got dressed to leave. I'll get the results in a couple of weeks at my next Dr. appointment.

The Revlimid came on Thursday like it was suppose to and now I'm waiting on Lovenox, an anti-coagulant drug to guard against some possible Revlimid side effects. It's suppose to be here either Saturday or Monday and then my switch to the new medication will be complete.

Patty and I went back to St. George again Thursday evening for labs and then I went into Dr. Te's Office this morning for the Arida bone medicine, so for two hours I sat in the lounge chair taking the medicine. It all went well and I haven't seen any of the side effects that I have seen for this drug before. Although I'm still trying to get rid of the rest of the sedative for the bone biopsy, I've been sleeping on and off for the past few days, maybe one more good night sleep will help me shake it.

7/27/2010 Back to St. George tonight

I get to make 3 trips to St. George this week. The bone biopsy I was suppose to have got postponed from Monday until Wednesday because we were waiting to find out when I would be getting the Revlimid medicine delivered to me. the Revilimid will be delivered on Thursday so I get to have Josh take me to St. George tonight to get the biopsy done tomorrow and then we'll get to go up Thursday night again so I can have the Arida bone medicine on Friday, I can't get it any earlier because of insurance purposes.

Got some crappy news, I didn't qualify for any co-pay assistance for the Revlimid, so it's a good thing I've been paying on the Canseco Cancer Supplemental insurance for the past 15 years, it will probably end up covering the rest of the co-pay so I can't complain too much.

It's good to have Josh here for a few weeks, I don't know what I would have done tomorrow since Patty is already committed for working, he can pour me back into the car and drive me back to Vegas tomorrow after Dr. Te's Office gets through with me.

7/23/2010 Back from St. George - I think

It has been a very full and confusing week, where we ended up wasn't very close to where we started, but everything usually happens for a reason and so all this did too.

On Monday we traveled to Coral Canyon and spent the night, then we went to my appointment on Tuesday morning. Every thing happened pretty much like we thought it would. Dr. Te talked to us and we were informed I would be changing to the Revlimid medication. He also decided that because of changing it was time to do another bone and marrow biopsy to see what was really happening inside of me and it would give a good baseline for the progress of the Velcade and now the Revlimid. So we coordinated with Christi, Dr. Te's medical assistant to schedule the bone biopsy for next Monday and waited for the Pharmacy to call us about getting the Revlimid shipped to us. And then everything changed again.

We headed back for Vegas and got home in good time. I got a call from Christi letting me know the good news and the not so good news. The good news - my insurance will cover 80% of the cost of the Revlimid (there was debate whether they would). The not so good news - each cycle is 21 pills and they cost about $360 each for a prescription co-pay of around $1500 each month. She let me know the Pharmacy together with some cancer funds have access to some programs to help pay that but that it might take a few days to get everything sorted out. So a while later Dr. Te called and let me know he had talked to Dr. Petersen in Salt Lake and they both decided it would be better if I didn't go another week without any treatment at all - It had been my week off the week previous. So we scheduled a quick trip to St. George for Thursday to get a Velcade treatment since his office was closed on Friday in honor of Pioneer Day.

I got a call on Wednesday from the Pharmacy to verify the information that Christi had told us about the price of the Revlimid and she told me someone else from her company would be calling me to get information so they could submit my case to one of the cancer funds to see if we could get some assistance with the co-pay. This should happen sometime Thursday or Friday.

Thursday morning we got up, Patty had some work things she had to do until 9:30 or 10:00 so after that we headed for St. George. When we got up there, I decided I needed some food on my stomach before the treatment so we stopped into a place to eat. While there, I got a call from the Pharmacy to get my information to submit to the cancer funds to get the assistance. The lady sounded pretty confident that we would be getting some good help, so I gave her the information and we are suppose to hear by Monday whether or not we get the assistance. Thank goodness for my Canseco supplemental insurance, it will help with anything that doesn't get covered by the assistance.

We went to treatment and everything was good. They started asking about my schedule next week. I mentioned that it would be good if I could have the treatment on the same day as the biopsy (Monday) because Patty had some work she needed to do on Tuesday. They started working that out, but they finally figured out that somewhere Dr. Te had canceled the biopsy for Monday, he wasn't in the office right then, so we couldn't ask him why, but we will ask on Monday during treatment when or if the biopsy will be re-scheduled.

So, just to keep it straight in my own mind, we'll go to St. George Sunday evening to get labs done and then do a Velcade treatment Monday morning. Then sometime Monday or Tuesday we should get the word on the assistance and get the Revlimid shipped to me. I don't know when it will get here, so I'll go back up Thursday evening, get labs done and then on Friday have a Velcade and Arida (the bone medicine) treatment and then sometime after that begin the 28 day cycle (21 on - 7 off) of the Revlimid.

I've been feeling very good the last few days since all the medications are pretty much out of my system, so we've enjoyed that, but now were back on treatment and looking forward (being sarcastic) to everything that goes with that. I hope everyone has a good Pioneer Days weekend and is safe.

7/18/2010 Sunday, Back from Salt Lake

We had a good day Friday in Salt Lake and had a good dinner with the Pronk family Friday evening, we got up Saturday and made out way back home, we stopped in Parowan to say Hi to mom and dad and Bruce and Cara and then drove back. We were thinking about staying in Coral Canyon Saturday night, but decided to go on home. I think it was a good decision even though I am drained and did virtually nothing today.

We're still soaking in what Dr. Petersen said to us at LDS Hospital, it's getting easier to take and makes sense, we're hopeful that the new medicine will do what we need it to.

I am still trying to recover from the fatigue of traveling, I don't know why it hit me so hard (I have a couple of ideas), but the travel, sleeping in strange beds, different food, too much food and generally not doing anything I normally do really ripped me up. I am very hopeful that recovery is coming tomorrow. Meanwhile, we'll rest and recover the best we can.

We are still on track for taking a trip to St. George Monday evening for labs and then my doctor's appointment with Dr. Te on Tuesday morning. We should find out then what our schedule will be for the next couple of months.

I do want to thank Patty and Amanda, my wonderful wife and daughter for taking care of me, taking us to Salt Lake, driving and generally doing everything to make our trip the best it could be. I love you both very much and can't imagine going through any of this without their support and the support of the rest of our family.

7/15/2010 We're in Salt Lake

Stayed in Parowan last night, got up this morning and drove up to Salt Lake to meet with LDS Hospital people at 11:00 this morning which lasted until about 2:30.

We met with various staff at LDS and they were all very nice, we met with Dr. Petersen, the director of the BMT - Bone Marrow Transplant center located on the 8th floor of the hospital. We got some news that changes things a little, my "m" spike, or the proteins that identify me as having multiple myeloma has gone up again a little, so chances are I will be changing medication to something called Revlimid which is taken orally with the Dex that I already take. It has shown to be stronger in dealing with mm protein spikes. I'll find out on Tuesday exactly how it will work and I'll post to let everyone know. It looks like the treatments will last longer than originally we thought, so we probably won't end up in Salt Lake for the transplant until at least into October.

The hospital will be sending me a letter next week, so after talking to Dr. Te on Tuesday and getting the letter from the hospital after that, we'll know more what we're talking about. I can't say that it wasn't a little disappointing, but after Dr. Petersen explain why the numbers have to be better for the transplants to work, I think we all understood a little better and I'm determined to do what it takes to give us the best chance for a successful transplant scenario.

We're hanging out in Salt Lake tomorrow, planning on having dinner with the Pronks tomorrow night and starting for home on Saturday morning, depends on how soon we make it out of Salt Lake on Saturday whether we make it all the way to Vegas or wait until Sunday to finish the trip.

7/11/2010 Sunday - Here comes Salt Lake

It's been a few days since I posted, don't know why, I guess I just let life get in the way of life.

Patty's week didn't get any easier after Monday and Tuesday, she was running all week and I felt bad that my little condition just added to her stress and lack of time. We ended up taking Addie to St. George with us for treatment because Amanda's Zoey was having some problems and we didn't need two sick dogs in the family. Addie is a pretty good traveler and we've packed her around enough this summer where she doesn't stress too much over where she is at the time - which is one of the issues we needed to work with her this summer. Bruce and Cara were at the house so we got to see and spend time with them on Thursday night.

Friday morning's treatment was a little strange, it was very busy, not sure why, usually Fridays are pretty slow and quiet, but maybe it was still busy because of the office being closed on Monday. And besides being busy, they were short a nurse so it took a long time to get me hooked up and running, it went good once I was hooked up. I met another lady that has mm and is now in remission doing the follow up treatments. I wasn't able to ask her all my questions, hope I see her again so I can ask a little more about her experiences.

I think the side effects from treatments are a little compounding over time, it seems that I use to bounce back between treatments, but the fatigue is getting to be a regular thing, with some days being OK and others a little worse. I've got a week off coming, hope I can bounce back and have a good trip to Salt Lake this week to visit with the staff and doctors at LDS Hospital and spend a couple of days up there with Patty and Amanda.

7/6/2010 Treat, ment after Holiday Weekend

I had Monday off work, Patty didn't, she had to work at two stores, should have been 3 but couldn't work the third into the mix - no time. So we got out of town a little later than we like to, but it was plenty early enough, I drove up to give her a rest. Josh left about 4:00 to head back to Phoenix, he got caught going over the dam and took him a while to get home, but he made it safely.

We had Pizza with Bruce, Cara and Tyler, Cara had to work on Monday also and so Bruce and Tyler were down, we had a pretty good night, but went to bed early.

Tuesday, this morning was treatment, Dr. Te's Office was busier than normal since they were closed yesterday. The nurses did a good job keeping up with the extra demands, but they were off their game just a little as it took 4 different tries before she found a good vein to give me treatment. Once they got me hooked up, everything worked real well and I was out of there in about an hour.

We met Mom and Dad for lunch at Applebees and talked with them for quite a while, they said they came down to see us and to make a summer run to Costco. It was good to see them and they brought us some additional information to send into the Downwinder's claim office, which was very nice.

Patty and I ran a a couple of errands, went back to Coral Canyon to pick up our stuff and then headed for home. We got home safe and then ran over to Amanda's to get Addie - she is so confused as to where she lives and who are her people, I think the only thing she knows is where her cage goes - so does she. One more treatment before we go to Salt Lake next week for our meeting at LDS Hospital.

7/3/2010 Treatment Report - Happy 4th of July

We made it up Thursday night to have dinner with Bruce and Cara and Kimberly for Bruce's birthday. Kim came down because she was on the way to the LV airport to fly to Mexico City to join her family which had been in Mexico for a couple of weeks.

Friday we all got up, Patty had to work with a new person at Smith's so she dropped me off at treatment, it was my long treatment where I got the Arida for bone repair and then the nausea, Velcade and then saline to mix it all up. The good news was that the Procrit that I was suppose to get was held back because it had worked so well that my numbers were up to a level they decided I didn't need it. Two weeks earlier my iron had been 27, last week it was 30 and Friday it was 32 which was good. The treatment was about 3 1/2 hours, but it all went well. Patty was still at work, so Bruce and Kim came to pick me up and we went to lunch with Cara.

Kim and I went back to Coral Canyon to wait for Patty to be done working, when she got done and got back, we loaded up and headed to Vegas with Kim. Then we went to dinner with Amanda, Ryan and Matt, showed Kim Matt's new house and then took her to the airport to catch her flight. She had about 10 - 12 more hours of travel ahead of her, hopefully it all went well.

Josh came up last night, Addie was happy to see him. He made pretty good time coming up, and got here safe. He has Monday off so will head back to Phoenix then.

Today we are going over to Amanda's to enjoy the 4th weekend. I'm feeling pretty good, but I am fatigued for some reason, hope not to be a drag on their fun today. I've got one more week of treatment until we take our trip to Salt Lake to check out the facilities for my treatment up there. Hope everyone has a great and safe holiday weekend this weekend.

6/30/2010 The morning after Treatment

We got out of town a little late on Monday, but still made it to the labs on time so it was no problem. Cara, Bruce and Tyler were at Coral Canyon so we enjoyed spending the evening with them.

Treatment morning went well, except Dr. Te was running late because of a procedure he was doing in his office that morning that made all of us run late to get to the treatment room. He went over most of my labs with me (all the results from Mon. night weren't back yet) and it looks like everything is moving in the right direction still. The Procrit is also helping my Anemia which is good. Anyway, made it through treatment by about 11:30 and then we ran a couple of errands and then I drove us home, I was still feeling really well since the side effects don't really hit until the next day or two and the Dex has me up and running.

As you can tell, I didn't need the alarm clock this morning, got out of bed a while ago and will go get ready for work in a little while. 3rd day of the Dex today, one more to go for this week, so by the weekend I'll start feeling the side effects from treatment and will slow down again. The last 4 or 5 days have been very nice, I've felt just about as normal as I can since this whole thing started. We'll see how today goes and tomorrow we get ready to go up for the next Treatment.

6/28/2010 Ready to begin Round 4

I wasn't looking forward to the weekend getting over, it meant getting ready to start Round 4 of the treatments and by the time Sunday came around I was feeling just about as normal as I have for several weeks, but it's Monday now and time to get ready for the next series of treatments. I started another 4 days of the Dex this morning (and I was sleeping so good) then we'll be traveling this afternoon. Last week's rest and recovery really helped me, so hopefully that with the Dex will keep things moving through this round of treatments.

Tonight's blood draw is a big one so they can have all current numbers for everything going into this round. In 2 1/2 weeks we'll be traveling to Salt Lake to meet with the doctors at LDS Hosptital so this blood draw will help them too, or I'll get to do another one before going up.

6/23/2010 Was it a week off? (late)

I'm writing this late, I just never got around to adding this information last week.

We made a quick trip to St. George to pick up the Hyundai from the dealer, so while we were there, I went to Dr. Te's office and got the second shot of Procrit, which is suppose to help my Anemia problems without giving me other peoples antibodies. Last week when they gave it to me I ended up with some pretty nasty side effects, but this time I took precautions and took a big dose of tylenol before getting the shot, so the side effects were very small - almost non-existent. It was a very quick trip. We took Addie with us, she was a very good traveler.

Then we went home and enjoyed a quiet weekend.

6/21/2010 More Interesting Days

Sometime Saturday, I think it changed from bone pain associated with the medicine - to kidney pain as the heat and maybe not enough water caused some real discomfort in my lower left back. I have a new found respect for those that suffer with kidney pain, I didn't recognize what was happening, so I kept medicating myself for bone pain side effects, but I think sometime around 3 or 4 am Sunday morning I recognized that it was a different pain I was suffering with. So after Patty did some reading Sunday morning and we recognized that it was probably a liquid problem, I set myself a challenge to drink my kidneys back to normal.

It's Monday evening now and I think I've drank enough water to float a ship, but the kidneys feel pretty good and I don't have the pain I had over the weekend. My insides are still recovering, but things are looking up.

6/19/2010 An Interesting couple of Days

We were a little late getting out of Vegas on Thursday evening, which normally wouldn't be a problem, the lab stays open until 9:00 pm. Well, we left town and headed up, somewhere around the Moapa Tribal truck stop the lights on the dashboard started coming on starting with the battery light. I figured that OK, the car is 3 1/2 years old, it's summer, we need a battery, so we started calling and found that the AutoZone in Mesquite had what we needed, so we limped into Mesquite and with the help of a nice kid at the store got the battery, got it changed and got on our way to make it to the labs with plenty of time to spare.

We thought that was the end of the problems, Bruce had a charger at the shop which he brought over to the house and we charged the new battery all night to make sure everything would be good. Well, that was the theory anyway. We got up Friday morning, Patty had to work at Smith's so I hauled her over there to work and went to my treatment, I was starting to get the idea that something else was happening because the batter light came back on, so we called Hyundai and got an appointment to have it looked at after lunch.

Treatment itself went pretty well, but I guess that I'm getting more anemic so they gave me some new medicine to boost me up rather than thinking about a transfusion. It all went well, but it has a side effect - it gets into the bones and has some pain associated with the after effects. They gave me medicine, but I should have taken it sooner, made it through, but wasn't much company for Patty for the rest of the day.

So, getting back to the car, we got some lunch and then went to Hyundai to have them look at it. They got it in pretty quick, and they found that the Alternator had burnt out - which happens so rarely, they didn't have a new one in stock, so they rented us a car to bring back to Vegas and the new part won't be in until at least next Tuesday, which also means that our week off, won't really be a total week off when we have to go up to get the Hyundai back. That will help the treatments, because they wanted the shots to be done once a week for 4 weeks - so this will work out.

6/16/2010 Day after treatment

Treatment went well yesterday, got in there, got hooked up and was out the door in good time, then after a couple of errands, Patty left me at the Coral Canyon house and went to lunch with some of her friends from St. George, it was good for her to do that. When she got back we loaded up and then headed over to say Hi to Bill and Ruthann (Patty's brother and sister-in-law). They are getting ready to take a motorcycle ride back east for about 3 or more weeks. Then we hit the road and came back to Vegas, we got back around 4:15 and decided to go pick up Addie right away instead of coming home and then going back out for her. Matt came home while we were over there.

So, you might ask why am I blogging so early again? I'm not sure, but I guess I'll blame part of it on the Dex in my system, and part of it on a knot, or something in the back of my right thigh that wouldn't go away this morning about 4:30, so once again, I get to watch the first rays of light come over Sunrise Mountain this morning and turn off the alarm so Patty can get a few minutes extra sleep. I don't know what this knot, or charlie horse in my leg is, but I hope it goes away soon as it is very distracting. Well, not too much else going on with me, just waiting a few minutes before getting ready to go to work and then we'll see what the day brings us.

6/15/2010 Treatment Day 3, Round 3

Don't know if it's the Dex, or a warm bedroom, or reflux, or a little of all, but I am up early again, I miss hearing the alarm. We are in Coral Canyon, Bruce, Cara and Tyler are here with us tonight after Cara made us some great Pork Burritos last night - that could account for the reflux as late and as much as I ate. The sun is just coming up here and people will be stirring around soon, but it's nice and peaceful right now, I pay for it later, but I really do enjoy this time of day.

We went over to Matt's house Saturday afternoon, Amanda helped him finish painting the entire downstairs of his home, it looked really good. They have started upstairs, but everyone agreed the blue-gray on the stairs is looking a lot better for a while.

We had a good trip up last night, we took Addie over to Amanda's to spend the night while we came up. I think she's a little confused as to where she actually lives, but she's doing quite well considering what we ask her to put up with and she really enjoys her time with Maggie and Zoey. There is getting to be a lot more traffic on the road heading north on most nights and last night was no exception, don't know where everyone is going, it does thin out a little after Moapa and then again after Mesquite, but still more than there use to be heading into St. George. They have begun work on the new off ramp and bridge that will connect directly to Dixie Drive about a half mile south of the Bluff Street exit, so everyone coming through St. George will need to keep that in mind for the next year or so while they build it.

So, treatment today, another short hour one and I'm back on the Dex for 4 days so my energy levels will be up for this week - countered by reduced sleep. We'll head back to Vegas later today, and I'll be back at work tomorrow and Thursday to get ready to do it all over again. Thursday will be the end of Round 3 treatments, it's kind of weird, but it's one of those things where it seems like we just started this a week or two ago, but it seems like it's been going for a really long time, both are probably true since my quick care issues started clear back in February but the treatments only started at the end of April. Hope every one's summer is going very well.

6/12/2010 Saturday Evening

We had treatment yesterday, it went pretty well, I met a couple there that were talking to the nurse practitioner about treatments and medicines and I heard them say Velcade, and a couple other things that sounded pretty familiar to me. The wife who is now 73 +/-has had Multiple Myeloma for 7 or 8 years, she achieved over 5 years of remission the first time with only medication, the second time she had a stem cell transplant, but unfortunately she got less than a year of remission. She went to LDS Hospital and nothing but good to say about the Doctors and the whole operation up there. unfortunately for me, our weeks are off just enough that I probably won't get to talk to them for about 3 weeks. I hope things go well for her, they seemed like very good people. I didn't get why they ended up in St. George, but they like it here. I hope to see them again and talk more with them.

We picked up some paperwork, ran some errands and got out of St. George pretty early yesterday. Matt had let us borrow his pickup to take the purple couch up to Coral Canyon, we did that and decided to bring back a futon bed to put into Matt's house. When we got home we added the purple chair to Matt's truck for him to use and/or store - at least it's out of our house. We went to Amanda's house to get Addie and stayed until Matt came home with our pickup that he was using while we were in Utah.

You may have noticed that the blogs aren't coming at 5 or 6 in the morning, the good news is that I seem to be sleeping a lot better, the not so great news is that I can sit down and sleep just about anytime. I go back on the Dex on Monday for 4 days, I am looking forward to having a little more energy again. Hope everyone has a great Sunday and I'll blog at you again soon.

6/10/2010 Here we go again

Tuesday we began another round of treatment, it went well, we met with Dr. Te first thing and went over all the blood tests that I had on the 28th. It looked like all the numbers were moving in the right direction, some of them quite a bit, others just a little, but overall it was very good news. Then after getting some errands run and a couple of other things, we headed back for home in Vegas.

Amanda said that Addie had a good night at her house with Maggie and Zoey and slept very well. Patty went over to pick her up and collect her things. We both went back to work on Wednesday, it was a good day, but a long one for all three of us, Addie did very well with the long hours. Then we went to dinner with Amanda, Ryan and Matt and afterwards went over to Matt's house to look at the progress on painting and getting it ready for him, he's had some logistic problems with the utility turn ons, but they are getting sorted out and he is making good progress (with Amanda's help) on getting things done.

We'll be heading to Coral Canyon this afternoon, we're taking Matt's truck to haul the purple couch up there, and then we'll be heading to treatment again tomorrow morning. Bruce is going to help on that end trading couches and Addie gets to spend the night with the girls at Amanda's house again, so she will be ready for a rest when we get back home.

I'm doing very well, I get tired easy, but that seems to be the major side effect from the whole treatment thing.

6/6/2010 Getting ready for Round 3

We've had a good weekend, Friday night we had the pleasure of seeing Bruce and Cara and having Lance, Suzy, Thomas and Ben (as well as Bruce and Cara) spend the night with us on their trip out from Florida on their way to Salt Lake by way of Parowan. It was a late night for everyone and not sure what Addie thought about the whole situation, but she did like playing with the boys in the morning. Saturday morning Amanda and Matt came by for a few minutes to say Hi to them before they left for Utah. Then Matt went to his house to wait for delivery people and to start taping for painting and all those fun home owner things that he will learn to do.

The rest of Saturday and most of Sunday was a lazy day of rest while we prepare to get ready for the next round of treatments. We'll be going again tomorrow afternoon to be there for Round 3 Treatment 1. We will be curious to find out the results of the blood tests that were run on 5/28, hopefully the numbers are still going in the right directions and we are progressing. So tomorrow it's back to work, then off from work to begin the next 3 week cycle.

Josh had a full week this past week. He's not in the class room, he's interning at a Costco Pharmacy for 4 weeks (the past week was week 1), he says it is a very busy high volume Pharmacy that is pretty close to his apartment. The hard part for him is standing on his feet for 8 - 9 hours a day because the head Pharmacist took all the stools away. He is building up his muscles, but it sounds like he is enjoying the experience, getting a chance to put the things he is learning to practical experience.

6/3/2010 Week off Treatment sort of

We are continuing on the week off treatments, but I am taking the Dex (steroids). I think it helped me recover better, I've felt very good all week, especially when I remembered to take the Dex earlier in the day, yesterday I didn't take them until after noon and I could tell my stamina was way lower than the day before when I had taken them about 7:00 am. Not much else on the health stage to report for me, Patty pulled a little muscle yesterday and is nursing it along.

The good news this morning, we get to take hot showers today. Our water heater started leaking on Monday night and we had to turn it off, so yesterday I tracked down the manufacturer's distributor and got a new one for warranty replacement charge and then used a great guy from our ward to change them out, which he did last night after getting off his regular job - I'm quiting now so I can have my hot shower. Hope everyone has a great and safe day.

6/1/2010 Return of the Dex

It's about 5:00 am and I'm up and blogging, that probably means one thing, I started 4 days of Dex yesterday morning - but not early enough.

I probably would have been up a while ago, but we have a house guest for the next 8 or 9 weeks and I didn't want to disturb her or in turn Patty until at least now so I waited. Our house guest is Addie, Josh's 7-8 month old Scottish Terrier. Josh starts a 4 week rotation with a Costco Pharmacy this morning and because of the long days he didn't want to leave her alone for 9-10 hours a day for 5-6 days in a row so we agreed to take her for June and July since after Costco he does another 4 week rotation with a rehabilitation hospital during July. He is out of school during all of August so he will probably be up here for much of August and so in reality Addie will be living here for most of 3 months. She is a pretty good dog, but needs a little more supervision during the next couple of months to help her become a good dog. Amanda will get her share of doggie sitting during the times we have to go to St. George, so it will be a family affair.

We got a new couch delivered on Saturday, we had gone to RC Willey looking for one last week and were planning on waiting until their Memorial Day Sale, but this one was already marked down and we liked it for our needs. it is a sectional and has 4 recliner sections. We think we're going to like it. It's comfortable and has good back support for our bodies.

Back to work today for everyone lucky enough to have a holiday on Monday. This will sound very bad for those of you that work 5 days a week, especially if you didn't get yesterday off, but for me it now a 3 day work week, which is very difficult because we work with contractors, they will be expecting us to get 4 days of work in the 3 days, which is impossible, but the demand is still there. Of course I'm relying on my memory of 3 day weeks gone by, now pretty much all weeks are 3 day weeks, so it is a little different for me now.

Don't have too much medical to talk about this morning, had a very good day yesterday, we didn't do much, but I feel very good. We talked to mom and dad yesterday, that was good. Like I said, started another 4 days of Dex yesterday, going to take today's dose earlier today than I did yesterday to see if they can clear the system before I wake up to solve the world's problems at 4:30 or 5:00 tomorrow, who knows, maybe the next blog will be at 2:00 or 3:00, I hope not.

5/30/2010 A good time was had by All

It was a very good day yesterday, after we went to the temple with Amanda, she invited everyone back to her house for a barbecue and swimming (she had heated the pool). She had a very good turnout of friends come to the temple from her ward, and Adam and Tazia Murie came down as did Chris Dickman. It really was a special day.

At the barbecue they got a game of pool basketball going, by the end it couldn't really be described as basketball anymore, I'm not sure what to call it, but anyone that played won't forget it today, they will all be limping around and tending to their sore feet and sore bodies from it. Amanda has a pebble-tech surface under the water and it can be a little hard on body parts that slide against it.

The side effects I had experienced on Friday never came back, I had a very good day and was able to enjoy the time at the temple and at the barbecue very much. Rob and Renee (Ryan's parents) came over to the barbecue and we enjoyed our time talking with them and getting to know them a little better.

It's Sunday today, the beginning of my week off treatments, I will be starting the Dex again tomorrow, but it will be nice to stay home for a whole week.

5/29/2010 The day after Arida

We got up yesterday morning in Coral Canyon and went over to get my treatment. Patty had work to do in Mesquite, so she dropped me off and went to do her work while I had my long treatment - about 3-1/2 hours with the Arida or Bone medicine. Everything went well, and when the unhooked me I called Patty to see how she was doing. She had lost track of time and was still working in Mesquite. I told her I would go over to the temple parking lot (about 1/2 block away) and find a good shady spot to read.

I started walking over there and then remembered something we needed to get done at the credit union - it was only about 4-1/2 blocks away and I knew Patty would be at least 40-45 minutes getting back here, so I took off walking up 200 East to Tabernacle and then east to the credit union. I got the business done and then walked down through the Elks baseball field and down to the temple parking lot. I had just sat down and pulled out my book to read when Patty called and so she picked me up so we could get some lunch.

We ate and then went back to the house to get our things before we headed back to Vegas. Before we left town I had to make another stop a the lab to give 4 more vials of blood, they wanted some very specific tests done before Round 3 starts on June 8th, so it was either do extra on this trip up, or make a special trip next week just for labs - Patty and I both voted for extra blood letting on this trip. We went there, I gave blood and we hit the road. We got back to Vegas around 4:00 pacific time.

I think I had a reaction to the Arida, after we came home, Patty said I looked tired and sent me in the bedroom to take a little nap to gather strength before dinner and anything else we wanted to do. Well, I just couldn't get warm, so I laid in bed and shivered and dozed for a while. I did get feeling better before bedtime and this morning I feel quite good, so hopefully the side effects are behind me now.

Today is a big day in the Dalton and the future Dalton-Stewart house holds, Amanda is going to the temple to take out her own endowment today. She is scheduled to go during the 2:00 pm session and then afterwards we are going to her house for a barbecue. We are very happy for her. Patty and Amanda have to be up there early, Josh and I will leave to go about 1:00 pm.

5/27/2010 Travel Day Again

Yesterday was a very good day, I had a little heartburn, but had good stamina and stayed at work pretty much all day. I don't know why the side effects are being so low after the 3rd treatment of the second round, but they are and I'm grateful.

Pretty much slept through the night again, but I seem to be developing foot and leg cramps that come on me during the last hour or so of sleep time, rather than thrash around and bother Patty, I got up a little after 5:00 to walk around the living room to work them out, I'll have to do some searching and asking to find out how to combat them.

This afternoon is travel day again, we'll go to the lab and then spend the night at Coral Canyon but I have to say this round seems to have gone very fast, Patty and I talked to Mom last night and we talked about how this two weeks has seemed to go by very fast.

Tomorrow is the long day of treatment where I get the Arida bone medicine, and then the day will be a little longer because I have to go back to the lab tomorrow afternoon to give several vials for some more complete blood tests to be run.

5/25/2010 Treatment Today

Good day today, we slept through the night again, I didn't get out of bed until 6:30 (Utah time) which is when the alarm normally goes off at home (5:30) anyway so I count that as a win, and Patty got to sleep in til about 7:15 +\-. Got up and did some work - remote logins to work computers are amazing things.

Treatment was probably the quickest I have ever had. The treatment room was full, and the nurses did a great job getting everyone hooked up and running, I got in the chair at about 5 minutes to 9:00 am and got out of the chair about 3 or 4 minutes after 10:00 am. Josh took me to treatment because Patty had some work to do this morning, and there was enough time that he was able to get some errands done during the hour I was in the chair.

We dropped by the doctor's offices to pick up the cover letters for the Downwinder paperwork and then drove back to Vegas this afternoon, I felt good enough to drive about half the way back and so far so good tonight, I know the fatigue will come back tomorrow or Thursday, but tonight I'm feeling pretty good and not very tired at all. Amanda and Matt came over to have dinner with us tonight, so we had a great dinner and now the 5 of us are now watching the American Idol final competition show.

5/24/2010 Travel Day Today

Travel day today, as I wrote before, Josh came up from school and will be going up with us today to drive the truck back tomorrow.

A pretty good thing happened last night, I slept in my bed all night and got woke up by my alarm clock - that hasn't happened in quite a while. Maybe the Dex is out of my system and I'm just running on the rest of the treatment drugs.

We had a good weekend, went to Penn and Teller on Saturday night, had a coupon from my old days of giving blood (as opposed to needing it now), it was a good show at the Rio. They get a lot of audience participation in their act and have a lot of physical humor. I was tired, but glad we went.

I'll get labs done this evening and then treatment 3, Round 2 tomorrow morning.

5/22/2010 Treatment Day Yesterday

You might have noticed I changed the name slightly, Patty didn't think it was right (and I agreed) that this was all about my journey of life, we've had lots of life and will have lots more, so I decided to just name it "my current journey" or side trip through life at this time.

Pretty good day yesterday, we got up and went to Dr. Te's for treatment, pretty full room for a Friday but the nurses were great getting everyone started, and the best part it was only a one stick Friday, the other Fridays the nurses had a terrible time finding a vein, so I had been use to 4 & 5 sticks on Fridays. The appointment went well, we are in the final stages of gathering the information to send into the Downwinder's so I had to request some additional information from both Dr. Te and Dr. Smith to complete the application. We hope to have it ready to send next week.

We picked up the car we had purchased on Tuesday and headed back to Coral Canyon where I proceeded to take a nap, since I had once again woke up way before dawn, I've got to figure out how to sleep through the night without waking up at between 4 and 5 to solve world problems.

We came back to Vegas yesterday afternoon in the Sante Fe and left the truck at Coral Canyon, Josh finished his finals yesterday and will be coming for a week to visit, we'll make him drive with us next week and bring the truck back down for us on next Tuesday.

Still feeling pretty good, coming down from round of Dex (steroids), so hopefully I won't crash too bad, but will get some sleep. The next couple of days will tell that. They are stretching out the frequency that I take the Dex from 4 on and 4 off to 4 every two weeks, so that will be a new roller coaster ride to get use to. We'll see how things go over the weekend.

5/20/2010 - Our 32nd Wedding Anniversary

Not much to say today that isn't covered in the heading above, My beautiful bride Patricia has put up with me for quite a while now. We'll have some dinner tonight with Bruce and Cara after we get to St. George to get labs done, then probably stay up clear until 11:00 tonight, we are just that wild and crazy. Patty is my rock through all of this, she is the water nazi and protects me from myself when I rebel. I am so very grateful for her.

Saw an article on the Deseret News this morning, good quotes by Thom Pronk in the article entitled "New Study shows which Professions are hiring in Utah" - The article also had good news for Future Pharmacists, which I think we know one of those too.

The only side effects I seem to be having from the last treatment is just a little fatigue as the day wears on, of course that could also be effected by being up before dawn most mornings, but I actually stayed in bed until about 4:30 this morning, so I really only got up about an hour early which gave me time to do a little reading and blogging.

We made the appointment yesterday to go to Salt Lake to have the initial consultation meeting with the LDS hospital people for the middle of July, we'll have more information after that as to the details of what will happen once we get to the transplant stage of this and will share more of that when the time comes.

5/19/2010 Treatment yesterday - good day

We got up yesterday and went to Dr. Te's Office for treatment. We met first with Dr. Te, he gave some good news, my proteins are dropping, which means I'm responding to the treatments. He answered several other questions and also contacted LDS Hospital to get things started for a consultation up there at the end of June or middle of July.

Then we did some running around to pick up prescriptions, receipts, invoices and other documents we need to submit the Downwinder's package and insurance forms, we were very successful in getting most of what we needed.

We then spent the afternoon buying a car, we decided to get a used 2007 Hyundai Sante Fe w/ only 22,000 miles on it. We had been putting all the miles on my truck and didn't want to devalue it any more, the new Sante Fe will get us up and down the road, use less gas and will serve us well for the next phases of our life, besides we got an extended warranty that will cover it bumper to bumper until it has 107,000 miles on it or 5 years, which ever comes first - I'm betting on the mileage. We will pick it up this Friday.

We then hit the road and made it back here last evening. So far so good on the side effects from Treatment 1, Round 2. I'm sure I'll start feeling some fatigue, but right now I feel very good.

5/18/2010 It's 5:00 am, where else would I be

Got in CC (Coral Canyon) last night after stopping for labs - she did a very good job sticking me.

Came to the house and had a good dinner with Bruce and Cara, then Mom and Dad came over for a while to check on all of us, we had a good visit. They will be pulling out of Hurricane - probably on Wednesday some time to go back to their "house" to wait until they can move their "home" up to the mountain, with this crazy weather, who knows when that will be.

I have an appointment this morning, but eyes popped open at around 5:00 Utah time, the Dex (steroids) started yesterday and unfortunately I didn't take them as early yesterday as I would have wanted, I think that contributes to the early hours. The good news is that I finally have my work laptop setup to get to our network, so I've spent the past 45 minutes dealing with all the emails and work things I can do for now.

Busy day today, we have quite a few things on the agenda before we head back for Vegas later this afternoon. We hope for limited side effects from treatment today.

5/17/2010 Ready for Round 2

Monday morning, we had a really good weekend. Having the week off last week allowed my body to recoup and get some strength back.

Mom and Dad came down for Anjalee's 1st birthday party over to Conni and Russ' house and then spent Saturday night with us, that was good. Pretty boring night, watched Sandlot and Goonies - how much more fun could anyone ask for. The last time they had seen me was a week ago Thursday - and I wasn't a pretty sight - I was worrying everyone, I think I looked and acted a little better this time.

Patty and Amanda did wedding preparation things most of the day Saturday, I made Matt go to Iron Man 2 (again) with me, I don't think he minded too much - and better yet, he bought the tickets.

Well, this afternoon starts it again, we'll be leaving after work to go to St. George for labs tonight and treatment tomorrow, hopefully we know what to expect now - we can live with that.

5/14/2010 Ready for the weekend

It's a little after 5:00 am, and I don't work on Fridays so where else would I be except up and staring at the walls, it seems this is my time to solve the world's problems, the doctors said it could be an offshoot from the Dex (steroids), but since I'm off them for a few days again, I think it's just getting to be a nasty habit.

Amanda sent me a text last night letting me know I had some dates using the the wrong month, I think I cleaned that up, but if you read something that just doesn't make sense from a logical standpoint, please let me know, it was probably some 4-5 am rambling.

We heard from Mom and Dad last night, they are coming down this weekend, will probably stay with us Saturday night, I gave mom a copy of the Downwinder's papers and she had already got information for me to help fill them out, we'll also be contacting the LDS church as they have records as to what unit you were assigned to and when, which I guess the feds take as "gospel". Going to enjoy the weekend before Round 2 treatments start next week.

5/9/2010 No Treatment Week

Sunday, We slept in all the way to 7:00 am, which would be great except church starts at 11:00 and by the time we got there, I was pretty tired again, I made it through sacrament meeting and then came home to rest for a while.

Patty has been serving as the Relief Society President for nearly 2 years and she will be released next week, she is sad in many ways about this, she has served very faithfully and will miss the bonds with the sisters and comes from serving in a calling like this. But with everything we are going through, she was feeling a little guilty dropping so many things on her counselors, so it's probably for the better, hopefully they can put us somewhere together to serve.

You might have noticed some of the posts have some odd posting times, I think it's partially due to the steroids, they wake me up over night and there comes a time where it is pointless to lay down and toss and turn, so at least I can get up and do misc. things like write this blog or read some scriptures or stare at the walls.

It is now Thursday morning 5/13 at about 4:10 am, I've had a pretty good week, my chest is loosening, I have more energy and seem to be gaining my strength to be able to start Round 2 next week. I'm going to try to get another hour or so of sleep before the alarm goes off.

5/7/2010 What do you mean no transfusion

So we got to Dr. Te's office on Friday morning, Patty had called ahead and told them she thought we needed to see K. or Dr. Te that morning because of my condition, they took us back to an exam room and waited. It seemed like we waited a long time, but it really was only 10 - 15 minutes, K. came in and had some puzzled looks, it seems the blood test I had taken the night before had my iron count at considerable higher levels 32 instead of 26, so she said we would have to take another count "stat" to find out which one was accurate, because above 30 they couldn't transfuse me that day. She listened to my chest and then made an order that I would need to get a chest X-Ray and some antibiotics to battle what ever was going on inside me. Patty was completely justified being so worried about me the night before. So one of the nurses, Christi took the blood for the test and they also did blood cultures that were to be for growing cultures to see what kind of bugs might have gotten into me. They are suppose to grow for about 5 to 7 days so we'll see next week what that means.

I took my treatment with the Friday Group, but I wasn't in much mood to talk to anyone, I mainly dozed off in the recliner room, although I did talk some more to Tim, the arborist and ex neighbor of Jack Herdt from work. We left the office and went down to get the X-Ray which went pretty smooth, then went up to drop off the RX for the Z-Pack they had ordered, I had a couple of others that were ready for refill so we dropped them off too. We picked up some lunch for me and Patty dropped me at Coral Canyon to rest while she went to lunch with Ann Elite, a friend from the Washington Fields that worked for Patty for a while who also has a husband that is a cancer survivor. I dozed and slept most of the afternoon, which helped me quite a bit. I had to get feeling stronger.

We stayed the night in Coral Canyon without too much incident on my part and got up the next day 5/8 to come back to Vegas to get ready for my week off treatment.

5/5 - 5/6/2010 dropping off the roids

Wednesday morning came and it was time for work, felt pretty good but as the day wore on, I really got tired and started tightening up in my chest, I was pretty sure it was just because of the low iron count K. had been talking about. Thursday came and the problems started getting worse, and to make matters even worse on Thursday, the wind was blowing and I spent too much time outside at an employee appreciation picnic that was held at our offices.

By Thursday night, we were heading up for the next treatment, I was too beat to help much at all, Patty had to drive all the way. We stopped a the lab to give the blood and I had to give a little more to be able to to the type and cross match for tomorrow's transfusion. We went out to Coral Canyon to meet Mom and Dad and Bruce and Cara to have some pre-Mother's day desert. I could tell everyone was pretty concerned with my condition, I tried to convince them it was completely because of the low iron count, which at the time I thought was the truth. We finished desert and it was getting late so we all turned in for the night - tomorrow was not going to be the day we thought it would be.

5/4/2010 Treatment #3 Round 1

We came up last night and of course went to the lab to give my sample for them to look at.

When we got in the office, we were shown to an exam room and after a few minutes Dr. Te's Nurse Practitioner K. Didion came in and was pretty excited because of the blood test the night before, she said the red blood iron count was alarmingly low 26.6 where over 41 is normal, she explained that her job was to work with me to monitor the blood tests, and my diet needs to help with side effects and keep me as strong as possible for the trials to come. So she was very concerned about the iron count and told me that we would need to schedule a transfusion of blood as soon as possible to raise the numbers into manageable levels, this hit us as a shock as we had been told that it would probably come to that, but no one had said it could come so soon. The other thing that was happening was that I was coming of a round of steroid use that they have me on 4 days on, 4 days off and will continue until they tell me not too. Anyway getting back to today, I asked K. if we could wait until Friday and get it done then, she was a little reluctant, but agreed to wait. So after talking for a while, we went to the treatment room and I had treatment #3 for Round 1, we went and picked up our stuff from Coral Canyon and headed for Vegas that afternoon. We got back in Vegas about 3:00 in the afternoon. As it turned out, might not have been the best idea. But that's for the next story.

4/30/2010 The Friday Group

We left to go to St. George on Thursday evening again so I could stop at the lab to give my blood. I'm still feeling very good and don't think I'm having hardly any side effects, I get a little fatigued towards the end of the days, but other than some gas, a little heartburn, hiccups and the fatigue, I am feeling very well.

We showed up for my appointment Friday morning, the crowd was a little smaller just 3 or 4 people, they got my IV hooked up, it took a few tries for her to find a good vein to get the IV in, but afterwards everything went OK, the Arida went in taking the 2 + hours expected and then they started the normal nausea, Velcade and saline. all in all it took a little over 3 hours. Patty was able to go to the temple and do a session which worked out well for her, I'm glad.

As it was a smaller crowd, we talked a little more than the previous time, I'd overheard a husband talking to the nurse about trees and I started by telling him the story of my mesquite tree breaking in two last summer, turns out his job is the arborist for the City of St. George which sounds like a real good job, but busy considering all the parks and trails that St. George has. The interesting part of the conversation turned out that Tim (his name) had grown up in North Las Vegas next door to Jack Herdt one of my surveyors at work down here, we talked for a while and then the next Monday I asked Jack about him, sounds like they both have lots of stories - one of those small world things.

We stayed the night in Coral Canyon just to make sure the side effects from the Arida didn't do funny things to me. That night it didn't. I got up the next morning and made my way out of the subdivision as the ironman race was going by to get the oil changed, safety inspections and license for the truck, when I got back we packed up and hit the road for Vegas. Welcome to May.

4/27/2919 First Treatment - Round 1

Tuesday morning, we show up at Dr. Te's office at 9:00 am for my appointment and the first treatment. They take us back to exam room 3 and one of his nurses did a teaching class to us on what the medicines would be and what side effects we should expect, that took an hour or so and then after a while Dr. Te comes in to talk with us. At first we are still under the impression that the with him as an out patient would not be too much longer than 6 weeks and then we would move to Salt Lake for the final treatments at LDS to complete the transplant protocols. Dr. Te answered all the questions we had for him at that time, and in the course of answering, we got a more realistic view on what the schedule would be for the majority of the summer. First the chemo treatments would consist of 3 - 4 elements each visit. 1) they will start the IV with nausea and side effects treatment that takes about 25 minutes +/-, then 2) they push the Velcade a low dose Chemo drug that is suspended in only about 30 ccs of liquid, then to run it through my system, 3) they push a small bag of saline solution through my veins. This process takes about an hour to complete. The procedure will happen twice a week for two weeks and then I get a week off, so treatments are Day 1 (Tuesday), Day 4 (Friday) , Day 8 (Tuesday), Day 11 (Friday) and then begin again on Day 22 (Tuesday) that actually becomes Day 1 for the next treatment cycle, today is Day 1 - Round 1, May 18th is scheduled to be Day 1 - Round 2. Also once every 4 weeks I am suppose to get a bone treatment drug called Arida (I think), for now that is scheduled for this Friday 4/30.

He started talking about the longer course of treatment, that is when we brought up our scheduling issues for late summer, namely Amanda and Ryan and their day to be married on August 14th. It was decided that treatments would last until then or past and then we would be transferred to the care of LDS. We were relieved and happy. He also said he believed I would probably have hair still at that time - which is the least of my worries. After talking with him for quite a while and getting most of our answers, he led us down the hall to the treatment room.

The treatment room, imagine what you might think it would look like - OK then forget that and think of a fairly large room, that has 10-12 large black leather recliners jammed into a room lining the walls with people sitting in them attached to IV pump machines. Really rather cozy, and absolutely no privacy, so you share everything with everyone, which seems to work very well for the circumstance. They started my IV - after finding a spot that wasn't bruised already from previous hospital stays. I got the treatment, we left and ran a couple of errands, got some lunch and went back to Coral Canyon where we both were very grateful once again to Bruce and Cara for the "chair-ity) of the recliners they brought there as we took naps to un-wind and relax.

Mom and Dad came by during the afternoon to see how we were doing, then Bill and Ruth Ann brought us dinner and cooked at our house, it was very good. Bruce and Cara ended up staying Tuesday night too. We ended up staying the night and got up the next morning 4/28 to go back to Vegas, I got to work around 10:00 am and at that point, I didn't think there were really any side effects evident.