Day 10 – I have the results back from the skeletal survey and the 24 hour urine analysis. Multiple myeloma can cause holes in the bones. There were no holes in my bones. Thank you Lord. The 24 hour urine analysis revealed a lot of protein spillage. That can be from 3 causes in my case: diabetic renal insufficiency (which I have), the amyloidosis, or the multiple myeloma. In this case it has been determined that the amyloidosis is the major source of the excess protein. On the basis of that and other lab tests, they are able to say that my kidney damage is mainly from the amyloidosis. I am in the middle of my second week of chemo. The dexamethasone, which is a steroid is causing me two significant problems. The first is out of control blood sugars ranging from 70’s to 320’s on dexamethasone days. I take double my normal dose of time released diabetic meds on those days, which keeps it from going higher than the 320’s, but when my blood sugars start to fall they can get too low really fast with the danger of going into a diabetic coma. I have been testing my blood sugars every couple of hours on those days. The second significant problem is the water retention. I have been carrying about 2 liters of fluid on my lungs since January. I have to keep a base weight and check my weight daily against that base weight. My base weight is 114. Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was about 6 pounds over the base weight. That causes me shortness of breath and chest pressure/pain. They doubled all my diuretics yesterday in hopes of getting the water weight back down. As of this morning, my weight has not dropped any so there has been no reduction in fluid retention yet. This makes walking across the room or up the stairs and sleeping at nights pretty uncomfortable. Hence, I am really not going anywhere but to my doctor in San Anderas for my chemo on Mondays and Thursdays and to my doctors at Stanford and to Sonora Regional for frequent labs. I missed you all on Sunday. I know that reading these updates will be hard for many of you. I don’t want to upset you. Walking this road with another person can be pretty difficult. So, if you are at all uncomfortable with these posts, please “unlike” this page, and you should not get it anymore. I will not be offended. My intent is to keep those posted that want to know and to reveal how God is working with me and my family through this journey. I covet your prayers and I treasure the verses and words of encouragement that you have shared with me. And now for the hardest part, please stop reading here if you don’t want to hear what my doctor said about life expectancy. He says I will most likely die of heart failure and it can come at any time now. My January heart attack, which was not a normal heart attack, is described by Stanford as “damage to heart caused by heart failure with a coronary catheter done which showed clean coronary arteries”. It was a dry run for what is likely to happen in the future. The amyloid buildup interferes with the heart valves and pulses and can cause it to fail at any time. Lord willing, the chemo will slow down the buildup of amyloid, and the previous “weeks to months” prognosis will stretch out longer. I will know better on November 4th, how my body is responding to the chemo. Lots of you have been telling me to keep up the hope. I really am, in my own way. I know God is in control of this journey and He has a purpose and a plan for everyone that is involved in it with me. What I care about is doing his will – “nothing more, nothing less, and nothing different” – and watch for whatever blessings He chooses to reveal to me along the way. I want to share those with others. My Hope is in the Lord. It has been my experience that when what is impossible with man is clearly seen, God’s hand is most evident. I am waiting with eager anticipation for those. So please pray with me for God to be glorified on this journey. Lastly, please pray for my family, especially Grant at this time. He is trying to pick up my load and his. He has been doing the 4 hour commute (2 hours round trip mornings and evenings) to high school for Shawna, Emily and Joseph all this week. He has been doing that along with running all the errands, doing all the shopping, cooking all the dinners, driving me to San Andreas, Stanford and Sonora Regional quite frequently. He is also doing all the outside house chores as well, getting ready for winter, like firewood, pool shutdown, etc. He is stressed and he is tired and he is trying very hard to stay upbeat for me.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:12:29 +0000
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