Transplant, Facebook, Buckeyes & more..

This our longest video post to date and it's worth the watch. At the end of the video are now four year old son, Ocean, tells everyone who he thinks will beat Multiple Myeloma. Will it be Spider Man, Batman or Daddy? You'll have to watch the whole video to find out!

Also, there is a talk-o (the verbal equivalent of a typo) when Cassie refers to Cytoxin. She meant to say Melphalan. Oops.

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Stupid Cold

I caught a cold this weekend from my about-to-be 4 year old son. Major symptoms include headache and the inability to connect two thoughts in my brain. No cough, sniffles or sore throat at this point. I am hoping to be on the upswing, or at least enjoy the two back-to-back Dex days as a way to feel productive.

Not only did I catch a cold....but so did Ann Arbor. We got dumped with 8+ inches of snow on Monday. There's nothing like shoveling your snow-packed sidewalk after half the neighborhood has already walked on it. It makes me want to put orange cones up right after a snowfall or booby trap the whole thing. The only issue with the latter is that my 60-year-old single lady neighbor may fall victim to my evil ways while being moved by compassion to shovel our sidewalk for us. That would be bad...

Changing topics, we got dates for all the pre-testing stuff that needs to be done leading up to stem cell collection, and the timing of everything pretty much sucks. Our simple and very emotional response was "you've got to be kidding me." Chemo treatment ends on March 1st and we were told transplant would be around the the third week of April which coincides with our baby's due date. I am new to this part of the process, so I am trying to be patient and understanding, but they should have given me the dates when my eyeballs didn't feel like they were going to pop out of my head because of this cold. I still have some hope that we can condense the schedule and get things going at the beginning of April which would allow Cassie to be with me during and after transplant. More to come....

To end things on a positive note, I had a delightful conversation with a couple up at the Cancer Center today. They drive in from Flint, MI for treatment and are a joy to talk to. They are now sporting a couple of Cancer Kicker bracelets and their journey will be posted in an upcoming MM Mondays.

Phil is going Blue! But what shade???

Like most chemotherapy patients, I too will lose my hair...eventually. Fortunately for me during the cocktail chemotherapy I am currently on my hair stays in tact and it's not until I move on to stem collection, high dose chemo and transplant do I lose my hair. The transplant will probably hit in January.

I see dying my hair as an opportunity to seek and explore my creative expression of self. Okay...really I just thought it would be fun and who do you know in corporate america that shows up at work with blue hair and spikes! I also decided to allow my facial hair to grow out which is something I have wanted to do for years; plus, it will keep me warm through this Michigan winter.

So now it is once again our readers turn to decide what hair dye I am going to need to purchase and I am open to bribes (e.g., buy 100 bracelets and your color wins...wink..wink). You can vote by using the poll on the right side of the screen. I am sure my friends at MMRF (Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation) are pulling for teal, which I think would be the most ridiculous color.

I am scared out of my mind to go in public with blue hair....just so you know. It doesn't fit my clean, down to earth midwestern personality...BUT nor does cancer...so there you have it. Blue it is.