We Continue

Well it's been more than 2 weeks since my last post and for some of you I know it's a blessing, my rants and all. But for some of you it truly is the only way you keep track of Ret's progress, so for that first group hang in there.

We did meet Friday 4/10, with Ret's local oncologist in Edmonds and things seem to be moving along fine. We're working on changing the dosages of some of the med's to hopefully reduce the "morning sickness" feeling, which on some days is all day, the doc is great and certainly willing to do what's best as long as the desired results for the cancer aren't jeopardized so that's good. We're still somewhat on plan for the transplant in early summer, the one change might be this however. The measure of the meds effectiveness is if Ret's M-Protein, "The Bad Guy's" drops in count and the goal is to get that count as low as possible before the transplant, so if that count continues to drop then they will continue the drug therapy longer resulting in a later start for the transplant. A little explanation on the M-Protein. Just think of the bone marrow as a pipe only so big, meaning it can carry only so much. So what's happening is the M-Protein, "Bad Guy" is mutating at a much greater rate than normal thus crowding out all the "Good Guys" so they can't do their work. Again they want to get that count as low as possible before the transplant. Possibly moving the timeline a little later into the summer than we originally thought, but again that's if in fact the count continues to drop if it levels off we'll go as planned.

A couple of cool things. The cards and letters just keep on coming, she hands me each one and says "oh you need to read this one", I know I've said this before but it really does brighten Ret's day. Oh yea girls weekend, the gang from high school, happened at the river this last weekend I know they had fun, I could tell by all the hooting and hollering in the background when I called, but it was holy hell on me! It was the first time we had been apart since this whole thing started. So instead of camping out across the river on the island with my binoculars, spotlight and being a real pest, I stayed up river at Norm and Carol Formo's and just called, not too far away just in case Ret needed me. Somehow the girls pulled it off!

Again thanks for all your heartfelt wishes.

Love,
Ret & Jack