Thursday Dec. 30th (Day +21)

Hanging out Christmas morning

Sophie & James cuddling - so cute!

Thank goodness things have been fairly uneventful since we've been home...we had a wonderful Christmas together as a family, very relaxing and stayed in our pj's most of the day!  It's hard to believe that so much time has already passed and it's time for me to return to work this weekend.  But I'm ready to go back, if for nothing else than to feel that our lives are starting to return to "normal".

Today at clinic we were in and out in an hour and a half, not setting any records but pretty good going!  Labs are more or less continuing to trend in the right direction.  All of Brian's blood counts (hemoglobin, platelets, and white blood cells) are slowly but surely regenerating and repopulating.  His creatinine is his biggest rival right now (and very possibly forever), as it's wavering around 3.  It went down as low as 3.05 this past Monday and was up to 3.19 again today - not huge jumps like before, but discouraging that it went up versus down.  So Brian's job right now is to drink as much as he possibly can and to work on eating more - sounds like a dream come true to me, but sadly it's a chore to him.  On a good note though, we don't have to go into clinic for another week!  And if his counts are stable next Thursday they'll decrease his visits to every two weeks - sounds good to us!

So now it's all about eating, drinking, and getting some energy back.  Just wait until a Guinness tastes good to him...it will be difficult to stop him once he starts!

Thursday Dec. 23rd (Day +14)

Went to the Clinic today, all I needed was some more IV fluids. My WBC is 5.6, platelets are 21 and creatinine is 3.19. So all in all everything is getting better each day. We now don't have to be back at the clinic until Monday which is a great 'present'.
It has been a long hard road to get here and I want to say thank you to everyone who sent messages of support and encouragement and everyone who just looked in on the blog. The prayers and positive thoughts from friends and family have been enormously appreciated and meant a lot when I was on the edge.
So thank you for helping get me through this and I hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Brian

Wednesday Dec. 22nd (Day +13)

Today has been a great day!  We started with a visit in the clinic at 7am - bright and early.  Labs continue to improve - white blood cell count is up to 3.6, hemoglobin 7.1, platelet count 12, and creatinine 3.3!!  So all in all, Brian's body is healing itself!  It will take anywhere from 3-6 months to fully recover all of the counts, but at least we're continuing to trend in the right direction.  We've been told that the creatinine would slow down in its' decent towards normal, so the small decline is neither surprising nor discouraging.  In fact, I was encouraged that it continued to decline when this was the first time in over two weeks that Brian has not been on continuous IV fluids.  Brian is still very tired and spends most of his day resting, but he is doing remarkably well walking up and down stairs, eating meals with the family, etc.  He is a real fighter and can't wait to get back on his bike!  He's already organizing getting his bike and the trainer over here to my parents' house so that he can start riding again next week!

After the clinic visit we visited our house to gather a few little things and then hung out with the kids the rest of the day at my parents house...our home for the time being.  Sophie has been great with Brian.  At first she was a little timid due to the lack of hair, but after a little while she cuddled up next to him and has hardly left his side since.  I've included a photo of them hanging out in bed watching tv - very sweet!

Tuesday Dec. 21st (Day +12)

Guess what?  We're going home!!!  Brian's recovery has been amazing over the past couple of days.  His creatinine has dropped steadily and is now 3.5 (normal is around 1, so we still have a ways to go but we're safely "out of the woods"), white blood cell count jumped from 0.7 to 1.9 today, and all other labs are holding steady.  He hasn't needed any transfusions over the past 2 days, so platelets and hemoglobin are maintaining - they still have a long time before they're normal, but at least he's not continuing to drop each day.  Electrolytes still need some tweaking, but that's not too big of a deal.  So he'll have clinic appointments tomorrow and the next day and then hopefully they'll drop down to 3 days a week - so basically we spent our busiest time in the hospital.

He officially started losing his hair two days ago and decided to shave it all off yesterday...but as of right now eyebrows, eyelashes, etc haven't started coming out.  Here are some pics!

Hair's falling out...very patchy so it's got to go!

Action shot!  We thought stripes would be a good look...!

Notice he's near the exit sign...ready to flee when they give him the "okay"

Monday Dec. 20th (Day +11)

Today has been a good day!  Counts are improving, Brian is eating a resting better, etc.  It's been busy and I'm heading home to see the kids now, so I will post more information tomorrow with some photos of the balding man!  Sorry for the short entry today...the day just kind of got away from me.

Sunday Dec. 19th (Day +10)

I think things are slowly but surely getting better each day.  As I said to a friend today, I can't completely relax and breathe a huge sigh of relief yet, but I've definitely breathed many small to medium sighes lately.  Brian is still pretty fatigued, but I think that's going to take a while to come back.  But he's generally doing better - eating and drinking more, resting better, getting up and around more, etc.  He got up and had a shower today, which really wore him out but at the same time felt really good.  Last night he sat up and watched a movie...so he's making strides!

Counts today were ok - creatinine fell to 5.17 and white blood cells came up to 0.5!!  These labs alone show that his body is making a fantastic recovery!  Platelet count was back down to 6, so he got another unit of platelets and his hemoglobin was 6.9.  Potassium level was down to 2.7 (normal is between 3.5-4.5), so he's gotten lots of IV potassium today.

I've included a small picture of his petechiae rash on his arm.  The doctor said it should all resolve in about 3 weeks or so when his platelet count is normal.  It's nothing that itches or hurts, it's basically little tiny bruises from his capillaries bursting due to his low platelet count...

Saturday Dec. 18th (Day +9)

Slightly out of focus, but mildly cheerful picture of Brian :)

I'm happy to report that today is a better day!  Although he's still very tired and worn out, Brian is finally feeling a little bit better.  He was able to sit up in a chair and eat some cornflakes for breakfast, and has sipped on a milkshake for lunch.  He even thinks a grilled cheese and french fries might sound good for dinner!  I hate to think what our grocery bill is going to be when his full-blown appetite comes back...

His counts today are better, too!  Creatinine has finally budged and is down to 5.6 - yay for his kidneys!  White blood cell count is at 0.3, hemoglobin is 7.4, platelet count is 11 - so no transfusions needed today!  All in all things are looking up.  Dr. Abhyankar (the BMT doctor on service this week) thought he might even be able to go home by Tuesday as long as his fevers subsided.  He still had a high fever this morning, but it has started to go down this afternoon - let's hope it continues to trend that way.

One of Brian's friends encouraged us to rename the blog so that it isn't so much of an "ownership" of myeloma...we'd love to hear any thoughts or suggestions you all might have.