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.