Long day.

I had a blood draw at 7:45 that actually happend early, then I was scheduled for a consult with a gastroenterologist at 8.

There was no receptionist available until 8:15. I was ushered into a room at 8:25. The gastro showed up at 8:30. She asked questions until 8:45 whereupon she said she needed to look up some records and left. She returned 30 minutes later with another doctor who asked some more questions.

See, neither of them had done their homework and actually read my chart or previous labs. I finally had to be rescued by a PA who knew the real scoop. Some doctors suck. My PA is terrific.

Anyway, I also had an ultrasound echocardiogram done at UW. I was almost late for the appointment because of Dr. Nohomework. The echocardiogram tech hinted that he saw nothing unusual. Certainly they're not really supposed to say anything, but he sorta gave me the wink and suggested everything was OK.

Ed and I had an appointment with the SCCA social worker. She made us aware of some different options and programs available to us, so the hour was pretty informative. The only thing that came up in the meeting that sorta disturbed me was Ed's apparent discomfort with some of his caregiver requirements. I'll have to talk to him tonight about that.

After the last appointment with the SCCA, I had to go over to VM Hospital for some more labs. 6 vials this time. I think I've been stuck half a dozen times since Friday morning.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS. It seems that my disease is returning very rapidly since I went off chemo exactly a month ago. The bone marrow biopsy showed the disease to be agressive. I have free myeloma cells circulating in my bloodstream. My blood numbers (the bad ones) have doubled in the last 4 weeks.

This means they're going to have to do another round of very powerful chemotherapy prior to stem cell collection. This also means that the transplant cannot happen less than 30 days after my last chemo day.

Just to give you a hint into what we're looking at: dexamethasone will be readministered and the suggestion has been made that dex might not be my biggest problem.

So looking forward to our Wednesday conference with the attending.

Tomorrow is orientation, a food safety class, another medical consultation, skeletal x-ray series, and an MRI. Another long day.