Back in the Saddle Again

Two weeks ago I began suffering from severe back pain (particularly at night). It reached the point that I could not sleep without heavy medication and a heating pad. I finally made a visit to L.D.S. Hospital on Monday night (2/25/2013) and they gave me some stronger pain meds, and ran a blood test. On Tuesday my doctor called with the sobering news that my leukemia has returned and was causing the discomfort in my spine. She requested that I report back to the hospital first thing on Wednesday morning. 

I had a wonderful dinner with my family at my parent's house on Tuesday night. It was comforting to have all my family (that lives close enough) to be there as I prepared to once again face the cancer that nearly took my life last year. This in addition to the outpouring of online support, visits, phone calls, special musical numbers, and texts, has been a great strength for me.

Julie, Melanie, and Amanda

For those of you interested in what I've been up to, my time on East 8 began as follows:

Day 1: February 27th (Why are there two r's in February, can't we just change it to Febuary and move on?) - who's with me?

I checked into the BMT clinic at 8:15 am. After some lab-work they moved me to my current room and asked that I refrain from food and drink as I would be undergoing a minor surgery in the afternoon.

I was connected to a pain pump for my back pain which was successful but only in temporary bouts. My initial blood-work indicated that my white blood cells consisted of 81% blasts (leukemia). Early in the afternoon I was rolled down to "Angio" and treated with a spinal tap while I laid on my stomach (this consisted of withdrawing some spinal fluid for testing and then inserting some chemotherapy to fight the cancer).

Right after that they rolled me over on my back so that they could surgically insert a new central line (the "triple nipple") back into my heart for easy blood and medication transfusions. As you can imagine I was pretty groggy for the rest of the night. If I remember correctly they still ran an echocardiograph (basically an utra-sound of my heart) and a chest x-ray. 

After all the exciting preliminary tests we got a good start on my chemotherapy regiman. I am taking Dexamethozone twice a day (it's a kind of a steroid), I also underwent an infusion of Vincristine, and what I like to call the "Smurf Sauce" because it is bright blue - and it's more fun to say smurf sauce than Mitoxantrone.

Rather than continue with the day to day - believe me it just keeps going - more chemo, more pain meds, more smurf pee, you name it. I will give you a quick run down on the general plan for my treatment.

Dr. Asch wrote up a custom chemotherapy schedule for me. It is based on other treatments that are being tested in a couple cancer centers across America. It is basically the same but we couldn't include some of the experimental drugs that are only part of those particular trials.

The goal is to get the cancer back into remission as soon as possible. We are already looking for another bone marrow donor. If I can reach remission again, the goal is to try a second transplant. I must be honest and tell you it is difficult to achieve remission a second time (particularly if you relapse within a year) but we are hopeful. 

I conclude with an anecdote my father shared with me about my nephew this last week. My Sister-in-Law Julie (pictured above) had taken her two little angels roller skating and my father had the following conversation with Alex about it.

Alex: "Grampa, I went roller skating today."

Grampa: "How was it? Did you fall down?"

Alex: "Yes, but I know how to get back up."

And that's just it. I may have fallen down again, but I want all of you to know that I will not shrink from this challenge - I know how to get back up.