Results

Even though our appointment was pushed back until Tuesday Phil had his blood work done on Monday. We know someone who knows someone and had his results pulled today.

Phil's M-Spike went up to 2.9 from 2.7. There are some other changes in things like light chains and IgG but we don't know the significance of those yet. Calcium levels are good which means his bones are probably fine and there's very little M-protein in the urine which Phil thinks is significant enough to mention here.

We've said all along that this would be the most telling appointment, and it's pretty apparent to us based on these numbers that the myeloma is, in fact, active and progressing. However, neither of us are doctors so it will be good to speak with Dr. J on Tuesday and get his take on things.

Thanks for hanging in there with us. More to come next week.

Meh.

Dudes, our appointment has been pushed back to March 3rd. Just FYI for those who were planning to check for an update next week.

CancerKicker.org - Kicking for a Cause

I had coffee with a new vibrant friend this week. Our conversation challenged me to consider to think whether this cancer-thingy is pressing me to formulate a message and start sharing it. I guess as a cancer patient at age 28, married with two young kiddos in the nest, you get to see the world through a lens that most are saved from...thankfully.  Somewhat related, my beautiful bride has brought up the idea of us using my football background and connections to start raising funds to fuel awareness and research for Multiple Myeloma. 

So we got the domain name CancerKicker.org. Which is very fitting because regardless of what happens, I am certainly going to go down kicking for the benefit of my family, myself and all those who come after. The first idea is getting U of M to sign on to either to a field goal competition at half time or possibly getting alum or corporate sponsors to sign up to donate $XXXX for every field goal made in the Big House. Lloyd Carr is still around and I know the Athletic Director, so maybe it's time to make some phone calls......

Any thoughts from our readers??????

New Data Point Coming Soon...

This coming Sunday begins the 24 hour pee-pod followed by blood work on Monday. Because I am a simple guy and as the blog title states this is for dummies, the things I hope for in the results are that that calcium stays in my bones and the M-Protein stays under 3.0.  There are a lot of numbers to track, but those are the high level markers of whether or not we need to start thinking about thinking. I would rather not start thinking... :P

Roughly 99.9% of the time I am not reminded of the fact that I have cancer of the incurable variety. I think the quarterly testing makes me think about it 0.1% of my time.  Stupid tests.....Results will be in next Tuesday, Feb. 24th.  Go Blue, Phil