The Next Horse?

 

A Potential Treatment Horse 

Multiple Myeloma treatments are like Pony Express horses. You ride one until it is exhausted, and then you get another horse. Horse #4 is worn out, so we are looking for horse #5.

My doctors at Emory's Winship Cancer Center have identified a clinical trial that seems to be a good fit for me. August 3, if all continues to seem good, I will sign the consent form and begin the tests that must be done to be sure I qualify for the trial, and also to be as sure as possible that I could stand the treatment. This is a new iteration of a family of medications I have taken through the years, so hopefully it will work and side effects will be minimal. April and I will know a lot more after Tuesday, and we will try to keep you posted as things develop. 

Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

As always, your prayers are requested and appreciated. They are the main ingredient in my treatment. I firmly believe they are why I have made it almost twelve years since my diagnosis. 

Looking for a Fifth Horse

  

 

Sometime within the last year, a friend who is also walking the Multiple Myeloma Road quoted her doctor as saying, “Multiple Myeloma treatments are like Pony Express Ponies. When one gets exhausted, you have to find another horse.” It looks like, for me, that my doctors and I will soon be looking for my fifth horse (5th type of treatment).

Recent blood tests show that the number that I and my doctors watch was no longer creeping upward but climbing rapidly. Not the news I wanted to hear, but not totally unexpected either. MM treatments don’t always have a long period of effectiveness.

 

I got the news by phone, and after I hung up, I opened my Bible to Psalm 16.

 

Psalm 16:1-2

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

² I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

    I have no good apart from you.”

 

Psalm 16:8

I have set the Lord always before me;

    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

 

Those were the words I needed to hear at that moment. I know I am very blessed to still be here since my diagnosis in October 2009. I'd like to stay a bit longer.

 

I am scheduled for a visit to Emory on July 6. They called Friday and are hoping to get me in for a PET Scan either here in Augusta or there at Emory before July 6. That is kind of a tight schedule. Pray that happens.

 

So, please pray:

1.     That God will be glorified

2.     That we’ll find a very good next treatment.

3.     That I will tolerate the treatment and its side effects well, and that it will work.

4.     That I will get the PET Scan before I go to Emory on July 6.

5.     That the new treatment can be done here in Augusta, if possible. It is so much easier.

Your prayers are the main ingredient in my treatment. Thanks!