Update & Hello - Dave #2 (Habubrat)

Good news! As I mentioned in my last blog we have a new doc as our guy left the clinic. This doctor I have had some interaction with in the past and he is well thought of among patients. Since Dave started this process at Little Rock back in November '08 after full diagnostics in October '08, no one has really known how he is doing from the chemo and transplant. Why? Because he was in remission and already at untraceable levels before he started. So here this poor guy is coming to us and us to him in the middle of our protocols and he's really wanting to know how Dave is doing. Of course anecdotally we know he's doing well, but still, he's a researcher and you can understand his desire to somehow know more definitively. Well Dave was severely compromised with bone lesions when he was dx. We had our last MRI in October '08. This very bright doctor decides to do another MRI and have a look see if the lesions had any changes at all. We thought, OK, yeah, that sounds reasonable. We'd like to know too. Well as you know, this is a Myeloma clinic and everything is done quickly. So we got in for the MRI that afternoon and they got the readings the next morning and we went to see him today. He's reading on the computer the findings and his comments were: "...amazing...remarkable...VERY remarkable actually." It turns out that almost all of Dave's lesions were completely gone and no traces or evidence that they ever existed. Of the ones that remained they were so diminished they could not get a measurement on them but could see traces of them. When I looked at Dave, looking at the doctor, I could see a HUGE LUMP in his throat. He turned to me with his eyes welled up and just looked at me. It was one of the moments where you didn't realize that you had been holding your breath for a long time. Ok. This doctor wants to do things just a little differently. He feels that we should give Dave the "standard" protocol vs the "lite" protocol. What this means is one more in between chemo session before the 2nd transplant. His view is that Dave is young, having terrific response and we should be aggressive. The only difference is that instead of the chemo and transplant this time, we will just do a lesser dose of chemo and then come back again in 6-8 weeks and do the transplant then. I spoke to my doctor friend back home in Maryland, where we used to live and she agreed that that is EXACTLY the approach she would be taking. She was relieved actually that this new doctor was taking this approach. Its funny how things turn out isn't it? So we have agreed this will be fine and Dave will get hooked up to his chemo bag tomorrow. We will have 4 days of chemo and then be monitored for the next couple of weeks after that and then go home. Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes in our journey! Best, Lori