Maintenance cycle re-set; Day One of cycle 10 to be Sept. 27.

I have had a week and a half of sudden changes and some discomfort. I started chemo drugs on Sept. 13 (a Velcade shot at the clinic and oral cyclophosphamide that evening) as programed to do thinking that was the beginning of the cycle even though the nurses told me that my blood count was low and they wanted me to come back Tuesday morning for a blood transfusion, which I did and 4 hours later began to feel somewhat improved and by night Iwas feeling very good. The Thursday visit was for a Velcade shot and a 4-hour infusion of Aredia, but then I saw Dr. Zangari on Friday, instead of Dr. Tricot who was so busy he had to farm out some of his work. Dr. Zangari told me that the PET/CT scan that I had on Sept. 9 showed a small mass in my lungs, which had to be cleared up before they could resume the chemo drugs. He had the nurses start a 30-minute infusion of an antibiotic and told me I would have to come back every day for a total of 7 such infusions the last of which I got today.



The Aredia infusion on the 16th left me feeling somewhat weak, which one of the nurses said was an expected reaction, but I continued to feel weak for most of the days since that infusion. I guess the antibiotic weakens me as it cures the infection. Andrea saw me after treatment today and told me that my bloodwork looks good, she can hear no problem in my lungs, and I can consider September 27 as day One of cycle No. 10. I have not been given a new schedule, but probably can work it out for myself. But I am to see Dr. Tricot on the 29th and he may have his own ideas about the schedule.



Emma is now going fairly regularly to the arthritis class at Cottonwood heights and finds that her ankle is becoming more flexible. She knows only one or two others in that pool and thinks she will go back to the active water-walking group where she knows most of them soon. She went to the clinic with me this morning for the first time in many weeks. We actually got home at a reasonable hour even after going by way of Costco to refill one of her prescriptions.



I haven't been posting during this stretch because I took my desk-top computer and printer to a shop for repairs and I could not get the laptop to connect to the internet. Two nights ago I finally hooked it up to a device that I bought when we moved into Joanna's house last August because I didn't want to mess up their telephone linkage. I was able to get connected, called up the blog and started a post when the screen went black, a short time later a message appeared at the bottom of the screen that allowed me to resume writing the post, but then the screen went black again and could not be retrieved. I knew the other computer could be picked up today so dropped off the laptop to see if it is fixable.