Thursday, October 15, 2020

Why Am I Awake?

It's nearly 0430. Later this morning I will I meet my new oncologist. 

Dr. Miller is 74. He has had to step back with Covid & all. So they are finally dividing us up. 

This is not a place I ever expected to be. Twelve years ago, I had a five year prognosis.

My current treatment plan is working out well.  I don't want things to change.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I hope she likes me!

Thursday, July 02, 2020

12 Years

Twelve years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.  Nothing was particularly wrong. Numbers from my yearly physical were pointing toward anemia & a neoplasm. So there were tests & biopsies & MRIs. Within a few weeks they had it all nailed down.  Stage IIIA MM subtype IgA lambda. IgA was known to be refractory, which means difficult to treat, and known to have poor outcomes.

Five years was the prognosis.

And refractory is just what I am. Front-line treatments did not produce a sustained response.

My stem cell transplant produced a mere 22 month remission.

Pomalyst caused other problems, so I had to come off.

I'm slow, a little dull, prone to infection & weak.

But thanks to my fabulous hematological oncologist at Tufts/NEMC, Dr Kenneth Miller & everyone on South 8......

Here I am, seven years past my "expiration date".  Grateful every day.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

It Seems I Only Come Here To Beef

So I'll post something pleasant.

Tomorrow evening, June 24th, the Massachusetts Historical Society is hosting an online event.

Mary Beth Norton will give us a preview of her new book, a narrative history of the “long       Image entitled /2012/juniper/assets/section37/Winter_2020/1774.jpg
year” of 1774, or the months from December 1773 to April 1775, which have tended to be overlooked by historians who focus instead on the war for independence. But John Adams, who lived through that era, declared that the true revolution took place in the minds of the people before a shot was fired at Lexington. The year 1774, Norton argues, was when that revolution occurred.