March 16, 2016.. We got good news today! I am still stable with the multiple myeloma. The doctor said my treatment has leveled off as far as driving the myeloma numbers lower so he is increasing my dosage treatment. He said there should not be any additional side effects with the increased dosage. He will be increasing it by about 25%. He thinks that will drive my myeloma markers even lower and quicker. He said my myeloma is not worse and in some respects is better but he just wants to drive the myeloma lower. There were no additional changes to my treatment. 
We will have to return for testing again in July. 
Every day since the bad weather Sunday has been beautiful. I am sorry I have not had time to send some photos along of some of the beautiful blooms, but we just have not had time. It will soon look like this at home. 
Tomorrow we will head back home just as early as we can get started. I will post about our drive home sometime after we get there.
We are very, very thankful for the good report today and thank each of you for your prayers and support. It sure does help greatly. I sure am glad I have you in my corner. We truly have been blessed.  

March 15, 2016.. I had a round of tests today and my second treatment of Kyprolis and Dexamethasone. I got the Dexamethasone late in the day yesterday so I didn't get to sleep much last night. We arrived at MIRT at 7:45am today to get the preliminary things done for the bone marrow procurement. When we finished with that, we went on to get the two MRIs before going to the treatment area. When I got the first MRI, which took about 35 minutes, I went out of that room and went to another room that had a scanner in it and was in that scanner for 45 minutes. There are several scanners in that area but I don't know how many. Needless to say, I was getting really tired of being inside those scanners by the time I finished. 
The bone marrow procurement went very smoothly. Mattie was my nurse. She is a really sweet nurse we got to know back in 2013 when we were here for over 3.5 months. She is originally from England and has a very pleasant personality and accent. It was like being with an old friend that was looking after me. Before and during the bone marrow procedure, there were several people (4 including one doctor) involved other that Mattie.  
When we went to the MRI check-in desk, which is in another part of the cancer institute, the nice black lady behind the counter jumped up and gave me a big hug. I only know her from checking in there. Actually, I got a hug the last time I checked in back in November. I tell you this place is really special in many ways but mainly for the people that work here. It was good to see another person we made friends with where we get the infusion treatment. We met her also in 2013. I posted her photo in a past posting in this blog so you might recall that. She is the one that baked me a sugar- free apple pie when she had so many other things to do on that Thanksgiving. I sure did appreciate it so much too. It was beyond being thoughtful. Of course we got lots of hugs from her today.  
I could write more but I had better stop tonight. The only thing I have scheduled tomorrow is the doctor visit at 1pm. That is the big one that we have been waiting for. I will have to have to say the closer it gets, the more anxious I get about it. I have no reason to feel that way, but I guess that is just natural. 
A real big thank you to the ones that care enough to read this blog. I sure do appreciate your doing that and a special thank you to Kathy and Steve who left the wonderful and caring reply at the first part of this blog.     

March 14, 2016.. Today was a busy and hectic day for us. We arrived at MIRT at 8:45am and finished and left at 5:15pm. I hope tomorrow will not be so hectic. I am getting treatments of Kyprolis while I am here too since I am mid way in my monthly treatment cycle. Getting the treatment adds at least 3 hours to the day at MIRT. I am scheduled at 8am tomorrow to start the bone marrow biopsy procurement followed by two MRIs. I will get the Kyprolis treatment again tomorrow. 
We made it through the tornadoes warnings yesterday without any problems. After the storms passed through, it was calm and we had a beautiful day today. The sun was out and many trees are in full spring bloom. It sure is beautiful in many places here. It is nice, I think, to visit a place that is either behind or ahead of the season at home. I would like to take a few photos of the trees to share with you but I didn't being a camera other than my phone camera. 

March 12 & 13, 2016.. I am sorry I am late in getting the update out for yesterday (March 12th). I were delayed in getting our internet access for this apartment today due to not having the network password. 
We left home on Saturday headed to Little Rock at 7:20am which was a little earlier than we normally are able to leave by about 40 minutes. We thought we were doing well with the early departure. We decided to take the route through Bulls Gap to get on Interstate 81, but as soon as we got up on the entrance ramp we saw that all the traffic was at a standstill. The delay was due to a truck burning, and we found out later that a woman was killed due to a secondary accident after we came through that area. 
We had an uneventful but tiresome trip to Little Rock but when we got to Memphis, there was another backup due to road repair. My brother, who lives in Memphis, told me an alternate route to take to avoid the repair area. We also took time out to visit with my brother for about an hour and a half while in the area. We left Memphis in the rain and later it was raining hard and was dark. It was really difficult to see at times. We arrived at the apartment at Pallisades at about 10:15 pm EST.
We just rested up and enjoyed having no schedule today. We have a busy test schedule the next two days. 
Right now, there are tornado warnings out and the warning sirens are going off all around the area. It is a pretty unnerving sound. I have never heard a tornado warning siren before.  It looks like the situation might be getting better now for the area where we are located. I sure hope so.

November 13, 2015.. We arrived home at 10:10pm tonight. We had a decent drive until we got to Nashville and then it took about an hour and a half to get through there. We had not had any major delays there in the past. I don't know why we did this time through. 

I noticed on my blog for July/August, we arrived home at 10:05pm so we were within 5 minutes of that same time tonight. 

We will have to return to Little Rock in March, 2016. 
Thanks for caring enough to read this blog.   

November 12, 2015.. We got good news today! The doctor said things look good and then he said "what more can I say". My myeloma marker numbers had improved some since the last time but the main thing to me was they had not gotten worse. In case you don't know, when we were here in July, the MRI showed a spot on one of my ribs in the back. It has been on my mind these four months but NOTHING showed up this time. They found no bone lesions at all. Before I started treatment, there were several lesions on my vertebrae and hip. I am so very thankful there was nothing there on the scans now. 

I recorded the visit with the doctor and also with the nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner went over all the tests before the doctor and I recorded her discussion as well as his. I thought I would add the audio to the blog but it is going just take too long to do it. 

The doctor is keeping me on the same treatment I have been on. He said since I am doing so well on my current treatment (Kyprolis and Revlimid), he wants to continue with the same treatment.

I guess it goes without saying, we are very relieved and thankful. I want to thank each of you for your prayers and concern.

We will head home tomorrow morning!    

November 11, 2015.. It was a rainy day in Little Rock today but we enjoyed our day off. I did not have an appointment anywhere so we enjoyed not being on a schedule.

Tomorrow I meet with the doctor and learn the results of all the tests I have had this week. I know you can imagine how uneasy I am before I hear from the doctor. 

Since I prefer to have some photos in the blog so it will not be so boring, I am including some below that I made on previous trips here. 

The Arkansas State Capitol 

At the Old Mill