July 11, 2016.. I got treatment today starting at 11am and was in the infusion area for about 4 hours for the treatment. The treatment does not take that long but when there are frequent delays, it really adds up. Sometimes at home, I am there for 6 hours for one treatment. In case I did not mention it, I get 6 treatments per month. The attending nurse had trouble getting blood samples (enough to fill 14 tubes). She first stuck my right arm and said she could not get blood there then she stuck the left arm...she could not get blood there either. She called on another nurse to help her and she got it at another location on the first attempt. I still have not gotten to where I like to get stuck and was hoping they would take it from my port. They could not get all the tubes from the port due to heparin used to flush the port contaminating and affecting two of the samples so that meant I had to be stuck. 
The APN went through lots of questions about meds, pains, etc. They cover lots of things like listening to my lungs and doing some poking and feeling. I felt like I had gotten a pretty good exam when I was finished. She did request an added test for my blood samples for vitamin D. I felt sure my vitamin D level was ok since I take 5,000 units per day on my own and I am out in the sun some. It was not ok on my level and she called me in a prescription for 50,000 units taken once a week. She felt it was important that I get my level up to normal. 
Everything else the rest of afternoon went pretty uneventful.  
I didn't mention last night we were so blessed to get an apartment again this time from Home Away from Home ministries. It is a single bedroom apartment and close to MIRT. We have stayed in this complex (Fifth Avenue Lofts) before but not in this apartment.
Tomorrow at 8am, I am scheduled for my bone marrow biopsy. It will be a sedated one so I am not dreading it like I did the ones I used to have that were not sedated. Boy! Did they hurt! After that is done, I will have treatment again and after that, I will get an Echo-cardiogram. That is to check to see if the Kyprolis I am getting in treatment is causing any heart damage. Which is one of the side effects. 
That pretty much sums it up for this Monday.  

July 10, 2016.. We made it just fine to Little Rock. We left home at 7:15am EDT and arrived in Little Rock at 8:00pm CDT. We stopped and spent about an hour or so with my brother in Memphis. The traffic in route was very good compared to most times we make this journey. We have made the drive a couple of times before on Sunday and the traffic was light then. I am convinced that Sunday is the best day of the week to make this drive. We came through two periods of rain but they didn't last long. Overall, it was a good driving day. 
Tomorrow, I have a real easy schedule at MIRT. I hope to finish the day there by early afternoon. That will not be the case on Tuesday and Wednesday though. Thanks for taking the time and caring enough to read this blog. 

March 17, 2016.. We left Little Rock for the return home at 8:15am. We got out of bed at 5:30am but by the time we packed the car and cleaned the apartment, it was 8:15am before we could leave. The drive home was uneventful until we got just past Crossville and we came upon backed up traffic where a wreck had just happened. We sat in the traffic jam for 1 hour before the wreck was cleared. We finally arrived home at 11pm. We were really tired by the time we got here. We are very thankful for a safe trip to and from Little Rock. We will be returning in July for my 4 month check up. Thank you for following along with us. 

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.