What a blessing it is having my mom here!
Every day now Jimmy has less back pain. His face is looking much less drawn and he doesn't look so tired anymore. He has been complaining about a pain around his rib area on the right hand side but says it's not half as bad as his back was.
We went through to UCTPAH just after lunch, of course not knowing if they were going to manage to fit us in to see Prof for the results of the bone marrow biopsy. We are starting to get accustomed to the routine at the hospital now too. If we coming for blood tests we have to report to reception where the staff already know us and they print a batch of stickers which we have to take with us to the clinic. If we are coming for treatment then they open a file. We also paid R30 for parking on the previous visits and now know that if we get our parking ticket stamped we only pay R7 regardless of how long we are there.
We went though to the clinic where Olivia was waiting for us. She did Jimmy's vitals and took some more bloods. We asked her if she had any idea if Prof would see us and what results they had and she told us that no matter how busy he was, we would see him today. The blood tests had come back and Jimmy's calcium levels had stabilised but they were still waiting for the bone marrow biopsy results. The calcium levels was excellent news as he was now out of danger of kidney failure.
From here we went through to see Prof. The results of the skeletal xray had also come back and they had picked up lesions in his skull, arm, legs, ribs and of course his spine. From what I understand lesions to be, they are little holes that look like material that has been eaten by moths and this is where the cancer has eaten the bone and it now has gaps in it. This is what causes the bones to become soft.This now changes the diagnosis from Myeloma to Multiple Myeloma. Prof examined Jimmy and he told him about the pain he was experiencing around the rib area and Prof said he is suspecting that it is probably a rib fracture so he gave Jimmy a new script for some more painkillers. He confirmed again that Jimmy had probably had the cancer for about 3 years already. He explained to us that he has sent a motivation off to our medical aid and as soon as they authorise the treatment he wants to start with the chemotherapy while Jimmy's calcium levels are good as these could rise quite easily again.
He explained that the chemotherapy would be done in cycles. There will be 4 cycles of 3 weeks and each 3 weeks would consists of intravenous chemotherapy twice a week for 2 weeks and then a week of rest. So the 4 cycles will last 3 months. During the coming week he is expecting the bone marrow biopsy results to come back and that will tell him what stage the cancer is in and whether or not another 4 cycles would be necessary. Once the chemotherapy is complete they will do a bone marrow stem cell transplant but he also told us that we would not be using a doner. Once the cancer is in remission they will remove his stem cells from his body and freeze them and then they do a really strong session of chemotherapy to kill everything that is left and then put the frozen ones back. I was a bit shocked about the Multiple Myeloma diagnosis but Prof seemed to think that that would have been the case all along. He asked us to please phone the medical aid first thing on Tuesday morning as sometimes we hear before they do as to authorisations and said he would like to get the ball rolling and if possible, start the chemo on Tuesday. He said that as soon as he starts the chemo, the body starts regenerating itself. Prof also cautioned us against Jimmy getting a cold or flu. He said that if Jimmy coughs he will easily break a rib and unfortunately there is no treatment for this, just very painful.
As hard as it is to take this all in, I must say, it is a relief that we know now and can move forward and start everything. Jimmy is feeling really positive and is hoping to be able to go to work in between the chemotherapy sessions.
And of course we came home to my mom being here and she made a delicious dinner of crumbed pork chops, mash potatoes, carrots and peas.
No comments:
Post a Comment