There's no place like Dr. J's myeloma clinic... click click click.

We had our last meeting with our myeloma clinic team today before we're passed on to the Bone Marrow Transplant team tomorrow.

It was bittersweet.

Our good friend Zak blogged about this very thing recently, and while our journey is far from over and we will reconvene with Dr. J and his trusty sidekick BN after transplant, this marks the end of a significant chapter in the Cancer Book. Induction is done, and we're now entering the next phase. It feels... weird.

Dr. J had wonderful things to say to us and we left, as we always do, in awe of not just his competence and knowledge and determination, but also his compassion for and sense of responsibility toward people suffering from myeloma. Remission is not good enough for him, as it shouldn't be good enough for any of us who are touched by this terrible disease. I respect Dr. J as a physician and also as a person. As my aunt Tweetie would say, he's a good egg.

BN, P.A., is awesome too. I won't say too much about him on here because everything we say on this blog always gets back to him somehow (hmmmmmmm...) and I don't want him to feel uncomfortable. But basically he's single-handedly made the last five months not suck. He's the best of the best and we lub him somethin' awful.

So now we've been turned loose to the bone marrow transplant team. I wonder if they know what they're in for? Cackle, cackle...

I also wanted to mention this article. I'm sure you myelomians (myelomiacs? We really need a cool name.) have seen this but I wanted to post it here for anyone who hasn't yet read it. Because while hope is absolutely necessary, so is the realization that this cancer is not like other cancers and something needs to be done. My kids need their dad and ten or fifteen or even twenty years of remission simply isn't good enough for a 29 year old. Awareness is key, people. As I've said in the past, I'll chill out a bit when spell-check recognizes myeloma as an actual word. So anyway, Kathy Giusti of the MMRF is a rock star and this article is a must-read for, well, everyone.

I am going to actually try and get in bed before 10:00 tonight. I find myself staying up too late once the kids are in bed because the house is just so darn peaceful when the preschoolers aren't brawling. I hate to waste all that quiet on crazy pregnancy dreams. But sleep will be hard to come by soon, so sleep I must.

Pleasant dreams to all of you, and we will update later this week after Phil recovers from his bone marrow biopsy. (He really doesn't mind them. I've never had one but I think know I'd ask for the epidural.)