Update

April 10

Rich and I decided to go up to Mayo last week to hear about their stem cell transplant procedure.  UOI and Mayo do different procedures.  After listening to them, we decided to go to Mayo.  I will finish my chemo at Ames till the end of May then I will go to Mayo in June for the transplant.  The transplant will take 6 to7 weeks which leaves my immune system to about 0.  It will take a while for my immune system to build back up. 

Kim's thoughts

So, I have cancer.  That is the first thought that went through my mind.  Okay, where do we go from here?  Luckily, it all happened so fast.  The decisions of what to do were decided without much thought.  You might wonder if I asked, "Why me?"  You know, I don't remember thinking that.  Mostly, I thought, "Okay, I have cancer, so with God and my family's help, deal with it."  Do what you have to do and get through it. 

When I have talked with my friends, I tell them if you research multiple myeloma, you read all the good and the bad--I'm focusing on the good.  So far, all reports have come back good.  I am thinking all positive thoughts. 

A positive mind is so much better for this battle than a negative one!!!

My faith is strong.  With this battle and all things I have done in my life, I put it all in God's hands to help me. 

Rich gives me strength and goes above and beyond to make things easy for me.  My wonderful, awesome, and very intelligent children (I still can't believe their mine, but I remember their births!!--okay, so I'm bragging), are constantly here for me.  I always feel their love around me. 

The love and support from my extended family is also very strong and positive.

I'm so fortunate to have such a strong and supporting group around me!

The plan

At this point, the plan is to do chemo weekly for about 4 months.  Depending on how everything goes, it is possible that there will be a stem cell transplant.  The stem cell transplant will use my own blood cells by harvesting them.  The decision whether or not the transplant will definitely occur will be made closer to the end of the chemo treatments.

A Thursday Update

Today, the blood workup is good! It shows that the protein levels are down (a very good thing).  It means that the chemo is doing it's job.

March 23:  Last week and this week I had my chemo treatments.  My protein count continues to go down. This week I found out the m-protein that spiked, went from 4.8 to 1.6 with 0 being the normal, so we are really excited about that.  I’m not being delusional that there will be hic-ups though all of this but the labs are showing positive results, so as before a positive attitude is important with this!!  The next two weeks Rich and I will be traveling to Iowa City.  The first week to have tests, then the next week to meet with the doctor to review stem cell transplant. 

The diagnosis...

January 11: Dr. Killion requested more blood tests due to finding protein spike in original blood test.
January 12: Routine medical check up. Due to the result of the blood tests, she suspected multiple myeloma from a protein spike.  She scheduled bone x-ray and oncologist appointment.
January 17: Had bone x-ray.
January 19: Had first oncologist appointment with Dr. Otteman.  He reported that the bone x-ray was clear (a good thing!).  He still needed a bone marrow biopsy to confirm it was multiple myeloma.
January 23: Bone marrow biopsy.
January 27: The bone marrow biopsy confirmed it was indeed multiple myeloma.
February 2: Had first treatment of chemo in Ames.  Will continue chemo treatments every Thursday as long as blood work comes out well.
February 9: Had 2nd chemo treatment in Ames.
February 16: Had 3rd chemo treatment.
February 23: Had 4th chemo treatment.

March 12:  Last week and this week I had my chemo treatments.  My protein count continues to go down. This week I found out the m-protein that spiked, went from 4.8 to 1.6 with 0 being the normal, so we are really excited about that.  I’m not being delusional that there will be hic-ups though all of this but the labs are showing positive results, so as before a positive attitude is important with this!!  The next two weeks Rich and I will be traveling to Iowa City.  The first week to have tests, then the next week to meet with the doctor to review stem cell transplant.