So, as you can see from the last post about July the end of that month was when the diagnosis machine got it's juices flowing.
After having the insides of my pelvis sucked out the doctor figured she wouldn't need to see me again until the 9th of August. That way all the tests and blood work could get back in and be processed. Well shiver me timbers if i don't get a call from my Hematologist asking my to call her immediately on the night of the 3rd. For those of you that don't know ... this is highly unusual. So the doctor and I play several rounds of phone tag in the afternoon of the 4th. Finally we get a hold of each other and she tells me that I have an appointment to see her on the 6th. Another novelty ... not, can you come in?, are you available? ... no flat out you will be in my office on this date at this time .... oh and bring your wife, she needs to be there as well.
So I dutifully tell Alyson what our plans are on the 6th of August.
08/06/2010 - We arrive and the usual poking and prodding is done with needles and needles with lasers and such. Off to the back we go so I can face the music. At this point I'm pretty sure I can name this tune in one for those of you that are old enough to remember that TV show! We get sat in the room and my hematologist comes in with a very serious look on her face. That is inspiring confidence in this diagnosis. Maybe I'm having puppies and she just needs to know what the heck I've been doing? Yeah right! It's down to business.
I don't remember exactly what was said but cancer, multiple-myeloma and amyloidosis were the words that factored in quite heavily in that discussion. We got to go through the test results and were educated on what it all meant. Actually, that was all me, I'm the guy that wants to know the why and how behind the disease. In short order we were talking treatment plan and length. We discussed that multiple-myeloma is an incurable cancer but that it is highly treatable. I have since taken this to mean, you have a big brown spot on your white shirt, it won't wash out but we can keep putting white-out on it to hide it! Sounds like a great idea but sooner or later you have to run out of white out ... right?
Needless to say at this point I'm mentally exhausted. I've just been diagnosed with an incurable cancer that is causing me to have congestive heart failure. Now for those of you that know me well know that I'm half Polish (thanks a lot Dad!). So let me throw some statistics your way. The percentage of patients diagnosed with MM under 60 is less than 5%. Now let's look at the amylodosis diagnosis. I found some stats that basically suggest that less than 1% of MM patients also get the bonus prize. So to sum it all up ... my Polish gene/luck really kicked into overdrive on this one!!!
But the day isn't over yet! We are off to chemo class. This was relatively benign. Take care of yourself, eat well, take your anti-nausea meds and you should survive this. We talked about ports, thankfully I don't need one of those things. However, I did see some people in the class that made me realized that no matter how bad I might "THINK" things are for me ... someone else has it worse. So these days everytime I start to feel sorry for myself I take a look around and sure enough there is someone else that is probably having a worse day than I am at that moment. If not, I turn on the 5 o'clock news that that does the trick!!
So chemo class is over and treatment is scheduled for the 9th. Poison awaits!!!
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