I'm sorry I'm late posting this but I almost forgot it. We made it home just fine but before we came home I came through Kingsport and stopped and got a radiation treatment. That makes 6 out of 10 that I'm scheduled to get. The reason for getting it is not to cure anything but to stop the pain that I'm having in my back.
We made the drive without any incidents happening. Just something that I have not done before even though I have wondered if I could do it, we made the drive from Little Rock to Kingsport on the same tank of gas. That is about 640 miles to Kingsport so the KIA is getting pretty good gas mileage.
I want to thank each of you for your comments in the blog, text messages, emails, and most importantly, your prayers.

We made it to Cookeville as we had planned and made it here at 6:45 p.m. We drove in rain all day so it was not a pleasant drive. We did stop and see my brother in Memphis and also my niece. It is so good to finally get to the room and be able to relax. I've been looking forward to that all day.

I really don't know where to start. Dr. Van Rhee's APN, that we like so well, whose name is Diane, is the first one we talked to at the clinic. I asked her first how was everything and she said not good. That pretty much sums it up. The myeloma has been going rampant since our last visit here early in November. I really suspected that things were not going well but when you see it on the images it is shocking. I debated whether or not to post some photos that I made on the screen of the PET scan showing how it was in September then November than December but I decided it might be better not to post them. Dr. Van Rhee said there's no treatment that he knows of that would help me. He also said that he did not think any of the car T-cell clinical trials would help me. The myeloma has become very aggressive and not just in my bones. The specialist that reads the PET scan last time mentioned there was an appearance of myeloma in my liver but this time there was no doubt it was myeloma in my liver. The nurse from UAMS even called after the tests were sent in last week asking if my local doctor knew that my liver enzymes were elevated.
The doctor recommended that I come off of treatment and go on to palliative care. We both do not disagree with that. I'm going to talk with my local oncologist and learn more about it.
I so much wish this blog entry could be better news. I sure do appreciate all of your support and your prayers and caring. It means so much to me and to Reta.

A reader of this blog ask me a question about the clinical trials that are available to me at Sarah Cannon Institute in Nashville. I thought someone else might be curious about it so I'm posting information on those two clinical trials. If you do a Google search on either of these numbers, you will be able to get more information on them. Both of them are Phase 1.

GBR 1342 101 (I could not enter this until March next year.)

BFCR4350A

We arrived for testing at the Myeloma Institute this morning at 6:30 and ended today at 6:30. We did get a four hour break during the day and we used it to catch up some on our lost sleep. I got a unit of blood today so that should help me feel some better because my hemoglobin was low.
I have decided that no matter what the doctor tells me tomorrow I'm going to try not to be shocked.
Thank you all so much for following along with us and leaving your comments, texts and emails.

We didn't go anywhere today and just stayed in the apartment.
Testing starts tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. but there will be blocks of time in the testing where I will have some free time. I would have preferred that I would be able to get it all done at once but my last appointment is about 3:30 tomorrow.
Thank you all for your nice comments and Joanie for your offer to help us get back home. We should be able to make it just fine but thank you.

There is not much to report today. I am still coping with the pain from the lesion in my upper back. I was scheduled for 10 radiation treatments on it but I was only able to get 5 before we left for this trip. The pain medication I take works pretty well until it gets up near the time that it is time to take more and it gets pretty painful. I was not having any pain at all from this area till about 3 weeks ago. I was hoping that the radiation treatments would stop it before I left to come on this trip.
That is all for now.... Jerry