Saturday, January 12, 2013

Synopsis of Step 1

Just now have time to give you a little update on the completed Step 1 (Assessment) at Mayo.  Monday and the first half of Tuesday were filled with all sorts of tests and sampling. They took 13 separate samples/tests, including a sample of the bone marrow and numerous X-rays. We had a brief break on Tuesday afternoon, then all day Wednesday was spent meeting with the RN who will be the transplant coordinator and the doctor in charge of the procedure.
 
The upshot of it all is that my heart and lungs are in great shape, and the other organs such as liver and kidney are in good shape, too. The skeletal frame is also in good condition, with still no sign of damage from the disease. Cancer activity in the bone marrow is at 20% - 30% (20% - 30% of the cells are affected by the cancer).  This is still significantly less than the 65% at diagnosis, but up from the 12% at last measurement 3 years ago. The M-spike indicator of the cancer showed no increase from last November at Mayo (7 weeks ago), but I'm a little unsure of those readings.
 
Carol & I decided to return to Texas for a week of working while in Step 2 (waiting for insurance to approve further procedures). If all goes according to plan, we will head back to Rochester on Wednesday afternoon, and begin Step 3, which will be several days of injections to boost stem cell production, and getting fitted with hardware called a palidrome (sp?), which is flexible tubing inserted into a major vein in my chest to allow for extensive blood work in Step 4.
 
Thanks for prayers, friendship and concern.

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