[Christa's Mom]

8 Weeks

by Christa's Mom on Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:02 pm

As I’ve become more conversant on this website, I guess I should introduce EJ and myself and share our journey…so far.

The events that finally lead up to EJ getting his diagnosis of multiple myeloma read like a bad movie script. This is the short story.

His mother died in July, 2010 after having been sick for four months. The funeral was at the end of August. In September EJ went to the beach (3 hours away) with some friends to watch a tournament, when his stomach started to hurt. The next morning his friends brought him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a ruptured colon and had to have emergency surgery to remove a foot of his colon. While doing a CT scan of his abdomen they found a lesion on his rib which they eventually diagnosed as multiple myeloma. While he was in the hospital recovering and trying to absorb the news that he had cancer, his father died of a heart attack, leaving his disabled sister alone at home with caretakers.

It was almost two weeks before I could bring EJ home. It took a while for his stomach to heal so he was not able to start treatment for his myeloma immediately. He planned the funeral for his dad, and we moved his sister to a new home. EJ finally was able to start treatment, and is doing very well on Velcade and dex.

We are early on this multiple myeloma journey, and most of the challenges we have had to face so far we have been able to get through and laugh at – when EJ was finally ready to be released from the hospital, I couldn’t get to him because a storm blew up the coast and flooded out the roads (who says god doesn’t have a sense of humor). Once we got home I wouldn’t let him take any pain meds for the pain from his surgery because I was worried about his liver/kidney. It took a visit to the doctor before I would give in. A 24-hour urine means you collect everything for 24 hours. You cannot skip a collection just because you are out of the house. We learned the pitfalls of dex when we wound up in the emergency room because he spiked a high fever from being too active!

We recognize how lucky he’s been so far. The Velcade/Dex regimen he has been on has not been too bad, save a bad bout with shingles. He’s not had to give up many of his usual activities, although he does get more tired at the end of the day. He's only had very minor neuropathy in his toes. We find out later this week if he is ready for a SCT.

Best news of all, we got engaged this past weekend after six years of dating! Hope to start planning a wedding for sometime this Fall, after his SCT. Our plans for the future include travelling and finishing the renovation of his house! Wish us luck.

Lyn