My platelet count had gone to 29 today from 28 yesterday.
My schedule called for me to get 4 MRIs today with the last one starting at 9:30 tonight. When I went in at 8 a.m to get one of the MRIs this morning, the lady told me that she was going to try to do all four while I was there this morning. She managed to do that and I was so glad that we didn't have to go back tonight. I got the 4 MRIs , blood work and the PET/CT scan this afternoon.
Tomorrow I will have to see Doctor Van Rhee and I will also have to get a CVL line put in. That's also called a central line. The last one of those I got put in, they put it in my neck and I really didn't like getting it put in. Maybe tomorrow will be a more pleasant experience getting it put in.
Just a reminder that Wednesday is when I will be getting the melphalan infusion. They told me today that it would be about 10 days after they are given to me before the stem cells start to make any difference.
Don't get overheated in the hot weather.

We had to go get my blood work done today and my platelet count had gone up from 23 two days ago to 28 today. Of course we were so glad that it was going up.
I have found out that the chemo infusion will last about 30 minutes. I have been told that I won't feel any effects for a few days and then they will be pretty bad. I will have to say I really dread going through this, especially with the risk involved in recovery that I mentioned in an earlier posting.
Tomorrow, my testing starts at 8 a.m.and then we have some big breaks between tests with the last one starting at 9:30 p.m.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday.

We didn't have to go to UAMS today so we spent the day relaxing and getting caught up on doing nothing except what we wanted to do. We did watch several episodes of Gunsmoke that was filmed in 1957. We both really enjoy watching Gunsmoke.
The only thing we have tomorrow is to go for Labs at 1 pm. I will be hoping that my platelet counts have gone up from the test yesterday.
I hope everyone's having a really good weekend and staying out of the heat.

The only thing we had to do today as for anything medical was to go and get my blood drawn and tested. After it was drawn and after there was enough time for it to be tested the nurse came back and told me that the platelet count was 13. We were very disappointed and I was also concerned because two days ago it had been 21. I was trying to think what's going to happen now with such a big drop in just two days and how that's going to affect things. How can I possibly recover from a much stronger chemo when I'm not recovering from the past one which is been almost a month ago. The nurse came back into the room and said she had looked at the results wrong instead of being 13 my count was 23. Well we were overjoyed and so relieved. The count did not go up much but it did go up and not go down. This shows I am recovering!
The APN that we saw today is giving us another day off tomorrow so we don't have to go back until Sunday. The extra day off will sure feel good.
Thank you all for the comments. Joanie, my address here is:
Jerry Caldwell
Park Avenue Lofts
Apartment 3113
320 South University Ave
Little Rock, AR
72205

We did not have to go to UAMS today so we took the opportunity to get stocked up on supplies that we will need while we're living in the apartment. It was really hot here today but I won't complain because I know it was really hot there in Northeast Tennessee too. They are forecasting it to get to 97 here tomorrow.
I got my schedule for testing next week and it looks like I'm going to have a very heavy schedule on Monday. My first one starts at 8 in the morning and my last one starts at 9:30 that night.
I won't have any counts to report today so I will report them tomorrow night after I get the tests done. I hope everyone has a nice evening. Thank you all for the real nice comments you left. They are much appreciated.

Today was kind of an uneventful day which feels so good at this time the way things have been the last few weeks. Map platelet count yesterday was twenty-three and today's check was 21. I hope that means they're kind of holding their own and maybe they will soon start to go up. I don't have to go back to MIRT tomorrow. I get to take that day off but then we will have to go back Saturday and Sunday. Let me explain again what MIRT stands for in case you missed an explanation I made several blogs ago. It stands for Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy which is part of UAMS. UAMS is University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
I had to get an IV of magnesium today which increased my stay there for another 2 hours.
Thank you all for the really nice and wonderful comments you made. They are very uplifting. Reta appreciates them too.

You can see in the photos above the difference in our sleeping facilities in the hospital and our sleeping facilities here. I am very thankful for the hospital but I am so glad to get out after 38 days being in there.
I learned quite a bit about the future plans from Dr. Van Rhee today. He told me that my bone marrow biopsy I had in early June showed 80% myeloma involvement in my bone marrow. The one I had last week showed only 5% involvement. The four days of chemo made that much difference but it is short lived because the myeloma will come back as strong as it was before if further treatment does not proceed.
One week from tomorrow, on Wednesday next week, he plans to start a stem cell transplant. I will receive a 45-minute infusion of melphalan and 18 hours after that, I will start to receive my own stem cells back in order to rebuild my bone marrow that the melphalan has wiped out. I will receive the five million stem cells, that I have stored from 2013, over a period of several days. There is risk involved since I have a low number of stem cells stored and he said the quality of the ones stored are probably low quality. He predicts a very slow recovery time as for as me producing platelets and also I will never be able to produce platelets like I once could. That will restrict what treatments they can use to control the myeloma since most treatments cause lower platelet production. He said I would have very low white cell count for about 2 weeks after the melphalan infusion and I would have to be very careful not to contact infection. He thinks the recovery will take around eight weeks. It looks like we're going to be here for a while. As I find out more, I will post more information on the blog about it.
I really appreciate all your notes, comments and emails. You all make this whole thing a lot easier.