Real Food

The iodine free diet ended Friday night, what a relief, I got to go back to eating regular food again. This is not something I would want to be on for any extended period of time, it got old very fast. Things have been going pretty good with the process of the radiation, with all the precautions you have to take after the radiation. I go back down to Little Rock this week for a body scan to see if the radiation did what it was suppose to do. Last Friday I took a little fall I guess you would say, I still have that light but heavy headiness when I get up out of a chair alot of the time, I had started down the hall and I felt it coming on, I grabbed the door facing and next thing I know I am coming to on the floor. I hit the back of my head on our dining room table wooden base or a chair one of the other. My back and the back of my head have really been sore, you kinda forget until you rub your head then you remember. Clay came home for awhile to make sure I was going to be ok. It was crazy, I would always feel weak and funny but I have never go completely down, but I'm ok.

I'm Glowing

Candes and I headed to Little Rock early Monday morning, I had an appointment at 11, but I needed to do bloodwork first. Things went smooth, there was some waiting in the lab but not bad. Candes checked me in at the Head & Neck Clinic (thyroid) and then she went to the pharmacy to pick up my injection shots, by that time I was upstairs. They called me right in for my injection, they want to do them the same time each day, then we were done for the day. I had started with a headache on Sunday that was pretty severe, Tylenol is the only thing I can take and it wasn't helping, we just hung out at the apartment the rest of the day. Tuesday was a busy day, went for my injection at 11, back to the apartment for lunch since I'm am still doing the iodine free diet. I had an appt at 1 with the kidney doctor and then an appt with Dr. Barlogie at 2, it kept us hopping. The results of the biopsy showed no myeloma in the kidneys, and this is a good thing but there has been quite a bit of scarring/damage done to my kidneys. This is probably due to the myeloma or even partly due to some of the medications I have been on in the past that might harm your kidneys. The bad thing is that the damage is irreversible, they are just going to keep a close eye on them knowing they can't get any worse. The next step would be dialysis and I don't want to go there if I don't have to. Wednesday was the big day for radiation, we went in and they called me back pretty quick, there's alot of pre stuff that goes on, explaining everything to you, mostly all the after precautions. They have to specially order your pill from a pharmacy across town, so by the time they make it and get it back over there we are talking about an hour. So after the wait I went in and took my pill and then I was on my way. Sounds really crazy. Candes and I were going to run back to the apartment to eat our lunch, then they tell me not to eat for 2 hours, so we ran back, picked up our stuff and hit the road for home, they said I wouldn't start throwing off rays for 2 hours. It was good to be back home again, all the things you have to do is just mind boggling though. All our laundry has to be done separate, I can't wash my clothes with Clay's, I have to have my separate living quarters with my own bathroom and no one else can use this bathroom for several days, I have to stay 6 ft away from everyone or they me anyway. I will be glad when this too is finished, but one good thing I get to go back to normal food tomorrow night. I can't wait. I am confined to the house for these days because you can't take a chance being around people especially babies, children, pregnant women, so I will just be hanging out here for awhile.

Kidney Biopsy

Clay and I left around 10 Wednesday morning for Little Rock, for bloodwork and the kidney biopsy on Thursday. We had to be at the hospital at 7 Thursday morning, they took us back about 7:15 to get things started. I got 2 units of plasma before the procedure then 2 afterwards, the biopsy wasn't too bad, but after we got back to the holding room the doctor came in to tell us there was some internal bleeding and would need to admit me to the hospital to watch me overnight. They watched my vital signs very close and did a blood draw every 4 hours, had a scan about 11 pm. These are the things they watch to see if you are still bleeding or if it has stopped. Doctors were in and out during the evening and the next morning, they sent me for a chest xray Friday morning to make sure pneumonia hadn't set in, since they had me pretty much laying flat all the time to prevent anymore bleeding. I was very glad when they said there was no more bleeding, I was worried a little about them going up my groin and into my kidney to find where I was bleeding and to stop it. I had a little cloudiness in the lower part of my lungs but not enough to be concerned about. That was good to know, I didn't really need something else going on. They came in to discharge me at 2:30 and we headed home, it was an uncomfortable ride home, not alot of smooth roads in Arkansas. I took a pain pill and went to bed pretty early, slept pretty good, Saturday when I got up I felt like I had been hit by a Mac Truck, I hurt all over. Sunday, today may be a tiny bit better but my body still hurts and I have a really bad headache, we need to get my things together because early in the morning Candes and I will head back to Little Rock for the radiation, I hope I am up to it because I just want to close another chapter. I am still doing the iodine free diet and will continue that until next Friday, I won't be able to be around people for about 5 or 6 days after my radiation, there are alot of things you have to do like wash my clothes separate from Clays, no one dries their hands on a towel that I have dried mine on. It is kinda crazy but I guess I will be radioactive for a while so you have to take all precautions.

Results

I had my treatment on Tuesday, packed up on Wednesday to head to Little Rock on Thursday. Normally going down for test and to see the doctor is a light packing trip, but this time was a little different. I started the low iodine diet on Tuesday so Candes and I had planned our meals to have while we were there. We had to take everything we needed for the salads or meals we were having, no eating out or picking up fast food. We left at 7:30 Thursday morning in a light rain but by the time we got to Mountainburg the rain started so hard she could hardly see to drive, we drove in rain like this until we finally ran out of it right before Conway. I had bloodwork done on Thursday and that was it for the day, Candes and I decided we would go to a movie. Later that evening the chemo kicked in (this is usually about the time it takes) stomach issues and that night I had the pains in my legs off and on all night. On Friday my doctor's appt wasn't until 2 so we had all morning, normally we would have been off doing something but we just stayed at the apartment being lazy, I just felt yuck, didn't feel like doing anything. There was alot of waiting involved before seeing the doctor, you do see a couple of nurses beforehand though. We were walking out the drs office at 6:30, that is just too long to have to wait but oh well what do you do? Dr. Barlogie said that my myeloma is all incheck right now, all counts are good with that, but there are underlying issues with my kidneys. So now I have to go back to Little Rock this week for a kidney biopsy to see if they have missed something or something new has popped up. My kidney counts have not been very good for some time, we are actually back to where we were when this all started last year. Dr. Barlogie wants to hold off on treatment this week until we find out something with the kidney biopsy, I won't have a treatment next week either due to taking the radiation. So this will give me at least 2 weeks to get to feeling better before I will probably start back. I did ask him if I was suppose to feel this way or would it get any better, he said it would get better, but when, how long does it take? I take a treatment one day and usually feel good for a couple of days then feel pretty bad for about 3 days then ok for a couple of days, then it is time to do it all over again. Hopefully they will get it all figured out and I can go back to feeling better.

Not The Best

A few days after my first treatment I had a few issues, I really thought I was going to get by with just some tiredness and a little red face. Sunday afternoon I started having alot of stomach pains and just felt very yucky with this for a couple of days. On Monday I started in with leg pains, I wouldn't call them cramps because there was so much pain involved. I called Highland to see if there were any suggestions of what I could do, my potassium was a little low so they wanted me to up my potassium intake. We stocked up on bananas and cantaloupe, it did help to bring it up, Dr. Rosenfeld wanted me to also start taking Vitamin D. The pains have pretty much gone away, there will be some aching every once in awhile but not as bad as Monday. It was just kinda a draggy week, I am blaming it on not having any chemo since April and then that poison hitting me again, I think my body will just have to get use to it and adjust. I had another treatment Thursday and saw Dr, Rosenfeld, my counts were all pretty good except my blood pressure was kinda low he would like to see that up a little, I get light/heavy headed when I stand up alot of the times. I have just been a little tired but I am hoping this last treatment will be a little more gentle to me. I will have a treatment on Tuesday this week and then head to Little Rock Thursday and Friday for tests and to see Dr. Barlogie (my myeloma dr). We will see how this week goes hopefully it will be better. I have to start the low iodine diet on Tuesday to get ready for my radiation in a couple of weeks, it is going to be tough figuring out what to fix, everything has to be prepared, there can't be any type of preservatives in anything I fix, it's just a little different than what we are use to. No dairy whatsoever.