IMF SmackDown: USA vs. Italy!

I got this email from the International Myeloma Foundation the other day and it made me chuckle.

 

The email subject was: World experts debate treatment options!

 



 

 

No disrespect intended - I am sure it will be an excellent conversation/debate. Reason for the chuckle: To me, this picture slightly resembles some sort of advertisement for an international wrestling match, only featuring doctors in suits. Heh. 

 

It's pretty cool for me to have a doctor that is considered a world expert. I feel very lucky. Interestingly though, December 10 is biopsy/MRI day for me at DFCI and it's a good thing I didn't schedule my appointment with Dr. R that day because clearly he is going to be in Atlanta laying the smack down on treatment plans. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Look how cute our Thankful Tree turned out!
 

 

 

We are thankful for...

cough drops

free heat

friends

family

book club

our church

NE Patriots
our gym

remote car starter

working from home

Brewster, Cape Cod

freedom

Dana-Farber

four seasons

health insurance

Honda

long weekends

holidays

green tea

coffee

DVR

each other

sweatpants

water (our water was shut off)

Ben & Jerry's

God
weekends
babysitting

rainbows
massages
Faneuil Hall Christmas tree lighting
short work weeks
Christmas songs
online support groups
education
classes at the gym
Trader Joe's
cell phones
Pinterest
hot water (we had no hot water)
pumpkin bread
smoothies
books
hockey

We are so very blessed. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving - give thanks!

DFCI Patient Education Symposium

Go this in the mail today...

 

 

It's all gravy...

Last night J and I were discussing the ups and downs of life and all the changes we are facing as of late. Possibly moving, my health, job loss...

You read that right.  Job loss.  I am getting "bumped" at the end of this school year due to budget cuts/restructuring. Yep. When it rains, it pours. Darn you, teachers unions!

At the end of our conversation J sighs and says, "Well, you know what? It's allllll butter..."

Heh.

He meant to say, "It's alllll gravy..." meaning, it's all good.

Whatever works. ;)

It's allllll buttahhhh, man. Totally starting that trend.

Anyway. I met with the high risk OB for my second "preconception" consultation. Good times. The med student, resident, and the high-risk OB named Dr. G were all very nice. Gotta love teaching hospitals - I really perfected my response to, "So what brings you here...?" by the third round when I finally got to speak with the real doctor. Dr. G has never had a patient with MGUS, smoldering myeloma, or active myeloma. She said that was to be expected though since the majority of myeloma patients are in their 50s or older and are not having babies.

Dr. G has dealt with patients who have gotten cancer before or during pregnancy and she talked a little bit about the protocol for patients with cancer. Pregnancy in itself is a immunosuppressed state and women who are pregnant are more susceptible to a lot of things. For my situation, it would really be a "TEAM" approach between maternal fetal medicine (Dr. G or whoever ends up being my OB) and Dr. R at Dana-Farber. They would work together to monitor me throughout my pregnancy. And, if things were to start to progress during the pregnancy they would work together to determine what medication I could take that would be safe for the baby and how early I could deliver, if needed.

Overall, the appointment was sort of a "nonevent" since a lot of this I already knew. And, of course, she really couldn't pin-point my degree of "risk" since there isn't much research in this area.

And finally, unfortunately, there was no recommendation for J to buy me diamonds like at my previous preconception appointment. Bummer! However, she did say, "If things are stable in December, I wouldn't delay. I hope to see you back here soon." Yippeee.

It's all buttah... :)

It's the One Month Countdown...

Approximately one month from today I will be back at DFCI! I have been waiting and waiting and waitingggggg for December 10. Just about one month to go! I feel like I am in the homestretch.


Doesn't this sound like a great day?

9:45 Blood work / drop off 24 hour urine collection

10:45 MRI (I've been told the scan should last about 75 minutes or so)

1:30 Bone marrow biopsy and aspiration (!!!!!!!!!)

2:30 Appointment with a different doctor (my rheumatolgist) over at the BWH



However, really, the MOST important, critical day, will be December 18th - when I actually have my appointment to see Dr. R and I will get all the results - M-spike, urine analysis, MRI, bone marrow. I didn't want to have my appointment with him on December 10th because none of the results would have been finalized and that's obviously what I want to talk to him about.

After the July bone marrow fiasco, I want to have my results presented to me at my appointments when possible... not via email or on the phone and then end up having to make an appointment to discuss the results in person anyway. Luckily, there is the patient portal I can use to find out most of my blood work and test results before my appointment. But it always hides pathology tests so I can't see my SPEP and biopsy results.

Although...after careful consideration, I might email his secretary (God bless her, she hears from me a lot) the day before my appointment to see if she can send me the results of my biopsy and m-spike.

I know, totally cheating.

But, I sort of don't want to go into the appointment BLIND not having ANY idea what my biopsy or m-spike results are. I need to be prepared! And of course, I need to compose my list of questions. :)

Perinatologist - another "ologist" to add to the list!

I have an appointment with a "high risk" OB on Monday. These particular doctors who practice Maternal-Fetal Medicine are also known as perinatologists. This is a subspecialty to obstetrics and gyncology  mainly used for patients with high-risk pregnancies.

Side note: I have been starting to keep track of all the different "ologists" I have been to.

So far: hematologist/oncologist, dermatologist, opthamologist, rheumatologist, endocrinologist, gyncologist and now - perinatologist. Crazy.

Anyway, right before my biopsy this summer, I went to see a nice, good, old, "regular" OB for a preconception appointment.

I told the doctor I had a diagnosis of MGUS and she nodded her head and said, "Ohh okay. I've had patients with that. *long pause* Uh, but, remind me exactly what that is again?"

Right... Not helpful!

While going through my list, "Questions You Should Ask At A Preconception Appointment (heh)" - that I had printed off the Internet, I came to the question, "What can my husband do to increase our chances of conceiving?" She responded, "Treat you like a queen and buy you diamonds!"

Funny, sure. Helpful, no. I guess this doctor was trying to lighten up the mildly hysterical person in front of her who was reading a list of 30+ questions from "the bump" dot com. Regardless, I decided that I liked this witty, regular OB. Plus, she said she thought I would be FINE to have kids. Sweet.

Then, in July, after pregnancy plans were shown a big huge STOP sign until December (or indefinitely...), I was advised to go for yet another preconception appointment, this time with a perinatologist.  We'll see if this doctor has heard of MGUS and has tips and suggestions other than J buying me diamonds. Not that I am opposed to him buying me diamonds, of course.

Should be interesting.

Christmas is coming!

Election Day is finally here...but...how many days until Christmas??

Come on, really. Priorities. :)

However, get out there and exercise your right to vote!