Here we go

The FedEx man brought a delivery of very pricey chemo pills this week. I am certainly thankful for medicare and my healthcare insurance supplement. If I figure right, each daily pill that I will take for the next 21 days costs about $500, but our monthly cost will be only about $43. 

Monday, I begin taking the chemo pills along with a steroid that enhances the effectiveness of the chemo. So we'll be seeing if we can knock down those myeloma cells.

Thursday, we're back to the Cleveland Clinic for the bone marrow biopsy and PET scans. The PET scan will take a closer look at my bones to look for damage caused by the myeloma, a common problem with the disease.

The good news is that I felt pretty good this week and was out and about and even skimmed some algae off the lake. I spotted a burgeoning white amur, obviously helping me by gobbling some of that algae, and Mr. and Mrs. largemouth bass were handing out cigars at the birth of their brood!

A word about the stem cell transplant. My doctors have differing opinions, but it is not really recommended for me by my Cleveland Clinic doctor, who would be in charge of that. It's a pretty long grueling process and may not bring that much benefit to me. So we'll put that on hold!

Thanks for all your prayers and kind thoughts.