I figured I'd surprise anyone that might look here once in a while. It's January 2, 2012 and we just got back (yesterday) from Morro Bay CA. We took the family, all six of us and the three four legged grand puppies to the CA central coast for Christmas Holiday. We rented a house so we were able to take the dogs with us. We left Monday morning Dec. 26th and drove down there. On Tuesday we took a couple of tours of Hearst Castle which is about 40 miles north of Morro Bay. Patty and I had been there several years ago so we knew what to expect, but it is still very impressive, and gives us commoners an idea of what the filthy rich were and are capable of. On Wednesday we rested and did some local sight seeing at the harbor and ate some pretty good sea food. Patty's sister Janet and her husband Tim were already there staying in their motor home in a local RV park. We had dinner with them and did some catching up. On Thursday, the kids decided they wanted to visit San Francisco so they got up early and made the drive (nearly 4 hours each way). They went to Alcatraz and saw some of the sights, it was pretty foggy though, so the sights had to be close to them. While they were in San Francisco, Janet, Tim, Patty and I did some sight seeing north of Morro Bay in Cambria and the San Simeon area. Janet and Tim left Friday morning to go back home. On Friday we went sight seeing to the north again and ended up north of San Simeon in a cove that is home to hundreds of Elephant Seals, when they come to shore to have their young. We got to see a lot of them and witnessed some big males and several newborn seal pups. On Saturday we went on a whale watching excursion. We saw some Gray Whales, but only got close to a couple of them. they don't "breach" like the Humpback Whales so you have to look closely. Ryan got some surprising good pictures that are better than what I saw with my naked eyes. It was a very good week, but as the clock started winding down on 2011, none of us were up to ringing in the new year, so we shared some sparkling cider and went to bed around 11:00pm. We did our traveling back home on Jan. 1st. It was nice to have all of us together for the week and we all got along very well. Amanda had an adventure with her phone, but you'll have to go to her http://randastewart.blogspot.com/ blog to hear the details.
Since it has been a long time since I posted anything about my treatments I'll tell you what I know.
In October I went on 5mg Revlimid every day for maintenance. I handled that OK so when I went back in November for my Zometa, I got the new prescription for Revlimid and they upped it to 10mg daily capsule. They took 4-5 vials of blood for testing, but the tests for the Myeloma markers weren't done by the time I went for my appointment the next day. In December they upped my daily Revlimid to 15mg and I am still doing pretty well. I get tired at the end of the day, but am able to make it all day and other than still not having the stamina that I use to, I'm getting along pretty well. I still haven't got the results from the blood tests of my myeloma markers, but I hope to see the December results this Friday when I go up for my January appointment. I believe they will keep me at the 15mg daily dose on my Revlimid, because the only larger dose is the 25mg I took last year. So I get the Zometa every 28 days. I take Revlimid every day and get blood drawn once a month. I'm feeling good and as you can see by the photos, my hair came back with a vengence, and got lots of curls and a slightly different and darker color than what I think it use to be.
Josh is staying with us for the next 12 weeks or so while he does rotations at a couple of hospitals in Las Vegas. He's been with us since Thanksgiving and he's been a big help around the house.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone at mom's party in Parowan this Saturday, although it would be nice to just rest this weekend. The party we always have the Saturday after Christmas was delayed one week this year because of New Year's Eve being last Saturday.
Well, Happy New Year, we hope and pray it will be a good one for everyone, that the economy will start to get better and everyone will get what they want, or at least what they deserve (only good I hope) We hope to see everyone on July at the reunion and thanks again to everyone that has kept us in their thoughts and prayers.
