Monday, March 27, 2017

March 27, 2016 - update

Just a quick update as it has almost been a month since I last wrote.  Brian is definitely feeling better although the peripheral neuropathy in his legs is still an issue.  Our oncologist told us that we have to give it some time as it won't go away overnight.  It is frustrating for Brian though, as you know him, he wants things to get better immediately!  At least he is able to go for walks albeit "slow" walks, but I'm just grateful he can get out and actually go for walks now. They are just short walks but we plan to build on that as the warmer weather gets here and he has had more time to recover.   

Brian had his MRI over a week ago and last Tuesday he had his bone marrow biopsy and we go for all the results on April 10th.  Our oncologist told us, when we went for the bone biopsy, that she did have the preliminary report on the MRI and all was looking good, no lesions on his bones and no malignancies were seen, so that was very encouraging.  The big test will be the results of the bone marrow though, so we feel a little anxious about that but hopefully it is still showing a remission.  She told us that she wants to keep Brian off any chemo-type drugs for as long as she can so that his body has time to recover, but when it does relapse, then he will go on Revlimid which I understand to be a stabilizing drug which supposedly keeps his disease stabilized.  It will be an oral medication that he takes 3 weeks on, one week off.  

One exciting thing for all of us is that we now have something to look forward to, as we have planned a "family vacation" to Florida (Orlando area) in July.  We have booked a 5-bedroom house at a place called Windsor by Westside which is a new resort with a lazy river, a small water-park like area for the young children, plus a huge resort pool and the house we rented also has a small pool.  So the grandkids have lots to keep them busy and for us to enjoy being with the whole family.  Brian and I are going to drive down (with the dogs) and the rest of the family will be flying down.  We have always wanted to do a family vacation so we made it happen and not procrastinate about it.   Everything is booked now and we can now look forward to getting away.  

So that is my update for now, I will update again after our visit on April 10th.