Telling the Tale

Results from the latest blood work shows that the cancer is still at low levels and holding. Here are a couple of charts that demonstrate what is happening. The top one is total proteins, the parameter that was high and got me into all of this. The red lines indicate normal range for this parameter, the blue lines indicated what has been going on since June 2007. The sharp decrease is when I started taking the Revlimid. You can see that's when it leveled off. The second chart is the all-important M-spike, and you can see the same trend there.

In addition to being better at fighting the cancer, the Revlimid is much less destructive to me than the other chemo therapies have been. Over the past few weeks, I have repeatedly been reminded of how much better condition I am now than I was months or even a year to a year and a half ago. I thank God for that, and thank you for your interest, concern and prayers on my behalf. This isn't over yet, but it is all good.

Grandparent Weekend

Forget about Grandma Saturday, this weekend we got a grandparent weekend! We got to keep the local grandgirl from Friday afternoon to Saturday night as her mom went to a church children's ministry retreat, and her dad had to work. She is really walking now, and spent more time getting around by walking than by crawling. Shortly after the video was taken, she enjoyed walking through the lawn, kicking and shuffling through the leaves. Afterwards, Carol washed her up before returning her to her mommy.

Saturday evening, we had a real nice and impromptu visiting time with Matt, Amy, Andrew & Julia.

Elder Retreat

On the last weekend in October, the 9 elders of Countryside Bible Church took a planning retreat at the Wildcatter Ranch near Graham, Texas. Most of the time was spent in planning sessions, but we also had some times of fellowship with all of the elders and their wives, and also a brief session on the sport shooting range. Here are some pictures (courtesy of another elder) of the scene from the back porch of our cabin, and Carol and another "elder wife", also on the back porch.

What I Do All Day (Some Days)

One of the many different things that I get to do in my work is to certify that liners installed for municipal solid waste landfills are constructed in accordance with plans submitted by the landfill to, and approved by, the State of Texas' environmental regulatory authority. The liners are there to assure that liquids that come in contact with the garbage to be deposited in the landfill don't migrate out of the landfill and contaminate the groundwater, and to also protect against methane gas generated by the decomposing garbage from migrating off site and creating explosive conditions.

Doing this certification requires frequent visits during liner construction, the full-time presence during construction of one my my materials testing technicians, direction, and lots of tests of the liner in the field, and on samples brought back to our laboratory.

Here is a picture of a liner built out of 3 feet of compacted clay that we are currently certifying on a landfill a little ways southwest of Fort Worth. This site fascinates me because of its purple clay. It also has a strata of green soil, the likes of which I have only seen once before in my life.

Piercing to the Marrow

Last week, the cancer doc sampled my bone marrow and I got results back a few days ago. The bone marrow is where the cancer resides with myeloma. The cancer is done to 12% (12% of the plasma cells in my bone marrow are cancerous). Last year at this time, the cancer was 19%, and it was 65% when I was diagnosed 2 years ago. Here is a picture of the bone marrow sample after it was extracted. For a quick update on the overall condition, see 2 blogs down, Oct. 2, 2009.

TW3 for D.A.M.E.

That was the week that was for:

Daniel and Whitney are running in the Chicago Marathon (yes, Marathon) today.
Andrew is sick with the flu. He was too tough of a guy to get his flu shot, but we did have a real nice time chatting on the phone about Tennessee's tromp over Georgia in the football game this weekend, and other things. Fortunately, Julia and Alyssa seem to be okay.
Matthew started a job this week working as a computer consultant on a contract basis with Alamo Consultants in Plano, Texas.
Emily has moved out of the house and into her own apartment in Arlington with her good friend, Jessica. We all pitched in and helped her to move Friday afternoon and yesterday. Nice place and nice situation for her.

I got a bone marrow sample this week and Carol has had to put up with me and put in a lot of hours at her job, including inspecting food booths at some big shindigs in Burleson on Saturday. Fortunately, she gets to go to a big conference for Environmental Health professionals in Austin for several days this week.

Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

What the Doc Says

Wednesday, October 9, 2009: I got results back on my blood work yesterday and went to see the cancer doc this morning. The cancer is still at its lowest level since diagnosis 2 years ago, but has leveled off and we haven't had any decreases over the last 3 months. I asked the doctor what I had to do to get the cancer lower. He explained what I would have to do, and I said, "Stable is good."

So for now the plan is to continue the current oral medication, steadily keep chipping away at the cancer, and maybe get a break from the chemotherapy in 6 months to a year. The doctor is very pleased that I am staying active (working and swimming), that I am watching my weight, and that I am not losing muscle mass, and he is very pleased with my overall progress.

While I was there, he also took a bone marrow sample, and I have been "out" all afternoon and early evening. It is the first bone marrow biopsy for me in a year. I should get the results back on that next week.

Thanks for the prayers and concern. In the next day or two, I will try to post a couple of graphs that really tell the tale pretty well on the cancer, and will also share the bone marrow biopsy results when I get them. I will also try to get some cute pics up of grandkids or kids.