An Interesting Day...

Ok so today marks the second half of cycle four! Wowzas! Time sure flies when you're...bizzayyy! When I think about where we were three months ago compared to today, well... We've come a long way. We're in a better place right now, that's for sure :) it's a lonnng road, but we're on our way to recovery! Baby steps people, baby steps. Before you know it, you'll be better and on that ever-elusive cruise around the mediterranean or wherever you choose to go during that PRECIOUS treatment-free time off (be it one year or ten years) that you worked so hard to achieve. We're about 50% down in those naughty, naughty cancer cells as compared to diagnosis! Normally by now, we would expect our numbers to be a bit lower. However, as the good doctor explained, we started at a very high level of those pesky cancer cells, so obviously, it might take one or two more cycles to get to where we want. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the numbers are going down, that is a reason to celebrate :)

A few...interesting moments from today. First off, I'm convinced that curcumin has some sort of positive effect on a myeloma patients body, and there's a lot of evidence out there to support it. But apparently, not enough. Our doctor is pretty awesome, but he's a little skeptical when it comes to these things. At least that's the impression that I get... Anyways, we met with him today (even though it's not our week off, which I will explain shortly), so I had decided to prepare a care package of sorts abundant with lots of curcumin goodness. For the last two days, I read what felt like a million papers and journals on curcumin so that I could try to convince him in some way. I even made side-notes and placed them all alphabetically in a pretty binder to make it easier and more appealing for him to read. I showed it to him, and he didn't even take it! To say I was a little irritated would be a slight understatement... I was not impressed. He said he had read the studies and unless there had been human studies, he was not comfortable using curcumin. Fair enough. But, here's the thing. There HAVE been human trials! I don't know if he was trying to protect his ego or something, which would be absolutely ridiculous if that were the case, but he was not very receptive. *SIGH*. Guess ill just have to keep pushing. The effects of curcumin have been quite remarkable in many MANY aspects. Hopefully more evidence in HUMAN studies will come out to support this little miracle, NATURAL drug.

Ok, so story number two. Last week was our week off, which meant that we had our consult with our doctor as well. The thing is, we didn't see him, we saw the nurse practitioner. She was super nice and everything, but...the way she spoke was a bit confusing and roundabout, so we ended up leaving with more questions than when we had come in with. Needless to say, I was not impressed. We only see him once every three weeks, so I don't think that its unreasonable to request him specifically. I realize that these doctors can get VERY busy, but we would gladly re-schedule or wait an extra hour or two to talk to him. Anyways, I sent an e-mail with these sentiments, which led to him meeting with us today. I meant no disrespect, I was just standing up for my mom. We deserved to see him. So, with that being said, I'm prettttty sure the nurse practitioner was well aware of my e-mail as was evidenced by the stink-eye whenever I saw her..... But maybe it's all just in my head :)

Last bit of info. Today's CBCs were pretty good, actually they were really good! Momma bear's WBCs went from 5.2 to 8.3 (normal range= 4-11), platelets from 239 to 299 (nr=150-400), and neutrophils from 3.0 to 7.0 (nr=2-9). And this is chemo week! Sooo... Its a little weird that the numbers went up instead of down... They're great numbers, but I'm a little concerned that it might be a sign of infection or something... I asked the nurse and she said that its only a cause for concern if they're way above the normal range, so I'll take her word for it... But, assuming and PRAYING that these are just good numbers and nothing else, that is REALLY GOOD news :) (how awful would it be if someone was playing some cruel april fools joke on us?!?!)

All in all, today is a good day :)

I will now proceed to some "Don't Stop Believin" courtesy of the kids from Mckinley High (surrrrrious GLEEk right hurrr) and chinese food!
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