Oops, maybe a little do over for some of last night's post

So, we got up this morning and went up to the hospital for my appointment. Anyway today was pretty much what it was suppose to be but when we got to the meeting with Dr. Petersen, he started talking about the proper time to do the next transplant and he explained to us (Patty and I) that the approved numbers for the M-spike should be less than 10% of what my high number was early this year, it was 2.2 so my number needs to drop to below 0.2 to meet the proper criteria. So the decision was made to finish my current round of Pomalyst and most likely do at least one more, so that will push thing out at least 7-8 weeks, and because that is over 30 days from now, they couldn't do any of the pre-admittance tests that I was suppose to be doing tomorrow and Friday, so I was sent back to Dr. Te and Dr. Petersen and Dr. Te will stay in contact and when the numbers drop then I will have to make all the arrangments again although there is a good chance they will let me do a lot of the pre-admittance testing down at Dixie Regional Hospital since they are also part of the IHC family like LDS is. So, I'll keep the appointments for blood labs and review by Dr. Te in August and go for another round of Pomalyst and see what is happening towards the end of September. Oh well, we'll have a good couple of days in Salt Lake and a mini vacation until everyone gets up for the wedding on Friday, until we'll try to show Donna around a little, go to IKEA maybe and find some fun things to do. But rest too. Until next time.

If this is Tuesday night then it must be the Salt Lake Valley

Well, yesterday, Monday was the last day I will have sat at my desk at my job as City Surveyor for the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Technically it's still my job for another 1 day and 17 hours (4:00 Thursday), we are in the Salt Lake Valley and will be until Sunday morning when we travel back to Las Vegas. The last week has been kind of, no pretty strange, I spent most of last week trying to get ready to clean out my office to take my piles of "stuff" home, Hello, my name is Bart and I am a junk collector, and I had collected almost 20 years of junk. Anyway, I kept getting interupted by work and well wishers so I got almost no cleanup and packing done until Thursday when I managed to put 90% of my stuff in boxes, unfortunately by the time I got it in the boxes, I was totally worn out and wasn't about to carry it out to my truck in 105+ with humidity, so I postponed the carrying until fairly early Saturday morning when it wasn't quite 95 degrees when I finished. A weird thing happened when I loaded the truck with the second and final cart of "stuff", I got in the truck and started it, but it took me a while, probably a shorter time than it felt like, but I really had a hard time putting the truck in gear to drive away. I guess it finally hit me, or it became very real at that time, I am leaving, I don't work here any more. I'm still trying to get use to that. It will probably take some time. The people in Public Works used my leaving as an excuse for a very good pot luck lunch on Wednesday last week - which was very good and I couldn't begin to try everything that was brought for lunch - somethings I couldn't try because it was very hot and spicy and my current situation is not very condusive to hot and spicy - especially the spicy and anything with a tomato based sauce - I don't know if there are enough TUMS to get me through the night anymore when I forget that rule. Then after the pot luck lunch - which was by invitation - they had a cake open house for me when the rest of the building could come down and say Hi and good bye, it was quite nice and a few people that don't work for the City anymore came to see me it was very nice Randy, JoMar, Patti, Chris Z. and some others that work at the City but I don't get a chance to see on a regular basis. Yesterday on my last "working" day I took our little Survey group out to lunch, it was a small group compared to the group we had just 5 or so years ago, I have always been grateful for the very good people that I was fortunate to work with at the City over the years, and was very grateful for the quality of all the work they did and still do, it gave me peace of mind since my license was dependent on their good work. I do have to go back to City Hall next week Monday or Tuesday to pick up my last check and turn in my keys, ID badge, and other City issued items. I will be a visitor then so I will have to most likely have to sign in at the information desk before I start harrassing the workers. OK, enough about that. We are up in Salt Lake for a couple of reasons, tomorrow - Wednesday - I start my interviews and tests with LDS Hospital in preparation for my sutologic stem cell transplant that I have talked about before. On Wednesday I check it, get a physical and give them my medical history and then meet with the Doctors from the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic) on the 8th floor of the LDS Hospital where I spent a good portion of the spring of 2011. On Thursday I get a full body Skeletal survey (X-Rays) including chest x-rays to see how the insides are doing and to check for any additional myeloma caused bone problems that thankfully up to now have not been very apparent and have not be any problem to me. On Friday I get a Pulminary function test, I get to give that a bunch of blood and other fluids, and then to finish off the day, I get to have another Bone Marrow Biopsy performed. They always save the best for last. It takes 7-10 days for some of these test to mature to see what is really happening, so not sure when I'll have word on how fast they want me to return for the transplant, hopefully around the first of October, that will give us time to get the logistics in place to leave Patty with full support at home in Vegas. Based on the second transplant I had, I anticipate this time will take 6 week +/- of which I will be up here alone most of the time other that some weekends and maybe when I first get discharged to find a motel with a kitchenette so I can remain somewhat isolated for the first few weeks, those who saw me when I first got back last time noticed that I wore a mask and didn't touch anyone for quite some time. The second reason of course is to celebrate the wedding of Liz Robbins and Chris Dickman. We are very much looking forward to all the good times that will be had on Saturday. Then we will have another long day on Sunday getting everyone back to Las Vegas to get on with the next chapter in our lives. Many, many thanks to out to Donna Arnold, Patty's good friend for agreeing to come with us to help this week, we are very happy she is here and hope to have a good time up here with here. I promises to be an interesting week and I'll give more information about it after it happens. Well, until next time

Just another steroid induced Tuesday

The last post early in the month talked more about family and other things going on because I didn't have too much going on personally, so I told all about our trip to Parowan to seal the garage floor and get rid of a bunch of weeds. It really was a very good weekend and I do still really thank my boys for all the work in the garage and Ryan and Amanda for transporting and arranging for the beef and of course Bruce and Cara for allowing me to steal their tractor mower. Now, I gave blood on July 11th like I was suppose to and then Patty and I made a semi-quick one day trip to St. George, then Cedar City, then Parowan before coming back to Vegas in a 7:00 to 7:00ish trip in one day, it was long, but it was a good trip. The results with the blood test were quite good again, I had contacted Dr. Te earlier in the week to see if he would look at my results as soon as he could so that if I needed a blood transfusion we could make the arrangements earlier and be able to plan for it since I was taking Patty with me and figuring out the logistics of when my appoint would be. But all of that was for nothing because Dr. Te called me and said that the blood tests came out OK and I didn't have to have the transfusion. My red cells were above the need and the other factors looked good too. My white blood cells are very low, but we have to live with them for a while. Anyway, got to Dr. Te's office Friday morning and he went over the latest blood tests with me, my IGG continues to drop it went from a mid range normal of 1150+/- down to around 700 which is low range normal, he was very pleased. The M-spike number dropped from 0.7 down to 0.4, which is the more important number that gets looked at for the transplant numbers. I also had contact with Cindy Nordling, my patient coordinator at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake where my first and my next autologic transplat will happen when everyone is happy with my numbers sometime in the next few months. Which will in itself will create another whole set of logistic problems for us. We are getting ready for a couple of other items I officially leave the City next Thursday July 31st but unofficially it will happen before that because we are leaving next Tuesday for Salt Lake so I can get the tests and appointments done at LDS Hospital in preparation for my next autologic transplant, then stay over the weekend for the wedding of my nephew Christopher Dickman to a lovely but mentally questionable (she picked Chris) you lady Liz Robbins that comes from the Sugar House area of Salt Lake. We are really looking forward to the trip for several reasons, we are super happy for Chris and we'll also be able to see Lance and Susy and their kids that live in Orlando, we have seen Susy and the kids each year, but I haven't seen Lance for several years which I am looking forward to. It will be a long and full day next Saturday because it begins before 8:00 in the morning and the reception gets over after 8:00 at night - Long Day. We also got some good news, Patty invited and Donna Arnold our good friend decided to drive up and stay with us to help Patty and I with the trip and they can spend the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday time having some fun while I am waiting between appointments at the hospital and I will have someone to drive us back to the room after my latest bone marrow biopsy that will most likely happen last, sometime on Friday. Because they won't let me (nor should I) drive after getting it done. I will write more when we come back until then I hope everyone has a good week and a great weekend, we will write more soon.

Thank goodness for our boys

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted last, nothing to really tell, my next blood letting isn't until this friday July 11th, with appointment being next Friday the 18th, I think I've said that several times. we had a pretty uneventful couple of weeks, until last weekend. Patty and I were both struggling with some of our issues, it would have been better for both of us if we could have tossed them both into the sky and each caught half of the other one's. We would have both been happier. Last Weekend, we left home last Thursday July 3rd. We had been planning on sealing the floor of the Parowan Garage for quite some time, but this happened to be the first weekend that all the kids had Friday off, so Patty and I went to Coral Canyon Thursday and since Bruce and Cara had to come south to pick up some supplies that evening, we met them at Iggy's for dinner and then went back to the house to visit for a while before they headed back to Parowan to get some sleep before heading out with Krystal for the weekend. I am very grateful to them for all they do for us and for opening their home up to us to rest and relax while we were up working on Friday and Saturday. Ryan, Amanda and Holden went to Richfield for a Stewart Family get together for the 4th of July, they had a great time and we were happy for all the things they got to do. We got to watch (sort of) Maggie and Zoe for the weekend since they were staying at a motel. They also arranged for some beef for us in Beaver - FYI Connie's brother is the butcher there. Anyway, Friday Patty and I went up and bought most of the materials needed to seal the concrete floor of the garage, I would say all, but when Josh and Matt came up later, they actually read the instructions on the epoxy paint kit and noticed that I had forgotten a few things that would make the job better and more complete. I also borrowed Bruce's weed-eater and stole his yard tractor - I was suppose to use dad's old riding mower, but I must not be smart enough to get it to work because it had a flat tire, that even after putting a can of fix-a-flat into it, it still wouldn't hold, so the tube inside must have been totally shredded. And the transmission must somehow trigger something to make it not work when it is uneven like that, because it would not go into gear for me except to make on run out to the street, and then it quit, then after a lot of struggling, it almost made it back to the garage. So, that is when I became a thief and stole Bruce's good old John Deere tractor mower. It worked wonderfully, but I probably owe him some new mower blades - when I confessed to them, I did offer to pay for new blades. Anyway, the steroid induced rambling continues. The boys came up late Friday afternoon and cleaned out the garage to get it ready for the next day's sealing party. Saturday the boys got up early and left the house before us to get the materials to get started on the garage floor. Patty got up and after spending more time getting ready that we thought we would headed up the hill to meet the boys. When we got there Josh and Matt had finished acid washing the floor and were just getting started painting the epoxy paint in the back, if you've neverdone it, you put in down in small squares and rectangles so you can sprinkly the colored flakes around to give it a little texture. Because they were all worried about me, my job was to sprinkle the flakes and to be honest, I did a lousy job. They did let me roll a couple of sections, but then they stole my roller and gave me the flakes bag back. I was doing a prett lousy job for about 2/3rds of garage when I made the decision to sit down on one of the paint cans for a while, when I saw they had painted enough that I better get back to my lousy application job, I stood up - I guess a little fast because as I was approaching the wall to get started with the flakes I started to wobble and tried to make it to the wall, Josh noticed I was going out and ran over to help me, He grabbed around me and helped me get to the floor without hurting myself. After that, they walked me to the truck and made me get in the air-conditioning with Patty while they finished. They didn't trust me the rest of the day. When they were about done, they sent Patty and I up to get water and drinks to take over to Bruce and Cara's house to rest for a while until the floor could dry enough to close the doors. While we were at Maverik getting the drinks and some gas, Ryan and Amanda showed up to get some ice to put in all the coolers that we had been hauling around for the beef they were bringing back. We all went down to Bruce and Cara's and Ryan loaded up the coolers and put them in the shade until it was time to leave. In the mean time, Josh and Matt came down, we had some lunch and we unloaded one of the 4 wheelers to Ryan, Amanda and Holden could go on a little ride together. Later Ryan and Josh went up to the garage to look at a couple of things. We finally got ready and went to Coral Canyon to get our stuff and clean a little before heading back to Vegas with a wrapped cow in our truck. As I said at the start, thank goodness for our boys this weekend. Not to dimish what Ryan and Amanda do for us all the time, but I would not have been able to do the garage floor without Josh and Matt putting aside their long weekend to help or rather do this for me, and I would have still been trying to finish the job later this summer without them. My next blog will probably even have some medial news in it, hopefully it will be good medical news. Until then I've got some calls to make to finish determining some decisions that I need to make before my last day of work (officially July 31st) It's hard to decide what to keep and what not to keep after having everything be taken out of my paycheck for these many years. Hope everyon had a great 4th of July weekend and got to enjoy the holiday in what ever manner works best for you. And while Patty and I both have our issues, I am so grateful to be living in this great country, even with the problems we have it is still the greatest country in the world, even though some people have forgotten many of the reasons why. I will close now before getting into any political views. Again, hopefully everyone had a great weeked and you all had a safe and fun time - what ever you were doing. May you all be blessed and happy.