The Snake...

One of my favorite drives is in Utah; from Northern Utah down to the small town of Bicknell in Wayne county. Often, we'll see mule deer, antelope, elk and an occasional coyote: it's a great area. As you come around Fish Lake mountain there is a stretch of road that my family has always called 'The Snake', this is the entrance into Wayne county. What lays in front of you are several miles of very straight but a very up and down road (a little like a roller coaster; actually that would have been a good name for that stretch - but 'The Snake' stuck). For most of this road you are on the 'higher' ground, but for portions you descend a ways and then come right back up to the higher portion. When we're on the higher portion, we can see Bicknell off in the distance (around 25 miles). When you're at the bottom, you don't see much of anything. At the end of 'The Snake' you are dropped very nicely into the beautiful town of Loa (then Lyman, then Bicknell). Again, my absolute favorite place in the world.

I'm sure by now your wondering where I'm going with this, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure. But in some ways my cancer has been a little like 'The Snake'. I've spent a lot of time on that 'higher' ground; love and support from friends and family, an outpouring of the spirit. For most of it, I've felt like I could see our destination; Bicknell/complete remission with the Bone Marrow transplant. I'm not going to tell you it's all been beautiful, but it has been very tolerable. I've had the low point's; Partial paralysis, poked and prodded and poke and prodded some more, too many MRI's and Bone Marrow biopsies. It has effected somewhat my ability to perform my responsibilities at both work and Church.
Maybe a strange analogy, but it works for me.

So now, another valley is in front of us. For the last several weeks I've had fevers (almost every day), absolutely no appetite (I've lost 25 pounds since the first of June), night sweats (almost every night) and my LDH level has been very, very high; yesterday it was 1500- a normal LDH level is between 150-200. At first my Oncologist thought maybe lymphoma- but testing ruled that out. Yesterday I had another (dreaded) Bone Marrow biopsy (this one was by far the best one I've had). Last night we received a call from my Oncologist, Dr. Bengston (whom we also love). The news wasn't good, she told us that the results of the Biopsy showed that my Multiple Myeloma had returned in force. She said it was very aggressive (It must be because a month ago we announced to the world that I was in Remission). Well, I'm no longer in Remission. We're right back to fighting this thing aggressively. I re-start Chemo again tomorrow; I'll have my three week cycles where I'm 'On' for two weeks, then 'Off' for a week. We are changing the Chemo a little, mixing in a little Cytoxin (I think deep down my Oncologist wants me to lose my hair :).

So, that is where we are - looking at another valley. But just like on 'The Snake', at the end of every valley is another High Point. It gives us hope.

Blaine