I’m sorry, but if I don’t see someone I follow for a long time, dealing with a health condition, I start to wonder. I haven’t post since March, so if I followed me, I would wonder.
We bought a house in the country in April. We knew it was a fixer when we bought it, because that’s what we could afford for something we liked, but it ended up being more of a fixer than we were counting on (hidden water leaks everywhere, broken drain pipes in the crawl space, etc). I have a construction background so we have been doing the fixing ourselves mostly, because again that’s what we can afford.
But I’m grateful. I can go outside and not hear traffic. There is virtually no air pollution. We have land and a sky full of stars at night. We have a fruit orchard and a forest. I have space to take my mushroom business to a new level (if I ever stop having house projects to fix 😅). There are good doctors not too far away if need be.
This is something I’ve wanted for years. Pre-cancer, I remember working working working and then go on vacation, enjoy my time and start to dread going back to the grind. I came across a concept early on in my cancer, which was “better my normal life”. Instead of looking forward to my vacation, make my every day life better, and pretty soon, you have a better life. My wife and I identified what that would be for us and we set out after that goal.
I confess, I have a hard time not doing anything. So with so much work to be done, that had priority over writing.
So why am I writing now? I’m sick with some airway cold and I have a fever that is forcing me to lay around because I’m too weak. Fevers make a person suffer, although a “normal fever” is better than a chemo fever.
But again, I feel grateful for the suffering.
Why?
It makes me appreciate when I’m well. And I’ve been well for a long time now. Appreciate life, which I can take for granted. I also find it good for my ego to get taken down a few pegs when something microscopic sends me to my bed.
It also reminds me that I am strong enough to handle germs. I’m strong enough to handle myeloma. I’m strong enough to handle my life as it has played out.
Ok, a quick myeloma update.
CBC is pretty normal, I even have normal red blood cells now, low platelets. IGG is still low, and I don’t get an infusion until I’m really low. I don’t mind too much though. I react to other people’s antibodies now, so it’s not been a pleasant infusion.
I had another MRD bone marrow test, I think back in April. I was stressing leading up to it. My m-band read “detectable but not quantifiable” in March. My pain was increasing. Makes a person go through the what “ifs”.
It came back clear with no myeloma cells in my marrow.
I still have abnormal protein in my blood, but zero in my marrow. I had a meeting with the doc yesterday, and he wants to know the reason for the protein. Is it cancer or my proteins being weird? (yes, fyi, you can have a m-band reading and it not be cancer, good to remember that!).
He wants me to have an MRD test done on my blood. I heard about this test awhile ago, that they were working on it, for a potential replacement for a marrow MRD test. They would have to send the blood sent to Dana Farber, which I’m not sure where that is exactly. Oh, it’s in Boston. Well that would be a plane trip for my blood. The only hang up is, to see if insurance will approve and pay for it.
Alright, I’m going to go back to appreciating my fever and phlegm. I hope you are doing well. Cheers.
