Troubling News

The week started and ended well but there was a tough spot in the middle. It began with lunch at the Ho Ho Gourmet with a great bunch of guys I used to work with: Matt Augustine, Gary Lee, Ryan Anderson, and Jared Penrod. We get together about once a month; Dave Moore usually joins us but couldn't make it this time.

Then Laraine and I had a great dinner with my brother Steve and his wife Elaine at the Water Moon in Draper (it must be Chinese week). We planned a camping trip for the week after next down at Capitol Reef National Park.

Thursday was the hard day. We met with my oncologist, William Nibley, and the news was not good. One of the two cancer markers we follow, the M-spike, had gone up to 0.4 after having been level at 0.2 since my transplant last November. The other marker, IgA, was inadvertently not processed by the lab, but I have no doubt it has gone up too. Unlike the M-spike, the IgA has been climbing steadily since the transplant. This means I will probably be switching to a new drug regimen. Dr. Nibley ordered more tests to confirm the M-spike result and pick up the IgA count that was missed, and then we'll meet and re-evaluate in a month.

In addition, my red and white blood counts were down even further. This is caused by the Revlimid drug that I take, even though I had been off it for a week. I do a cycle of 21 days on and 7 days off. The lowered red count makes me anemic and the lowered white count weakens my immune system.

Things got better after that as Laraine, and Libby and her two boys Sam and Max, and I headed for St. George, where we are staying with my brother Mike and his wife Jan. Friday we all took a nice walk on the pathway along the Virgin River. Saturday Mike and I enjoyed a bike ride on the road that leads to Zion National Park, ending up in Springdale, where the rest of the gang met us for dinner at Oscar's. Try it if you're ever in the neighborhood.

Yesterday after the Brigham City Temple dedication, Mike and Jan had a barbecue for other family and friends that are visiting or live here in St. George. Our youngest Aly was down with her husband and some of his family. Also here was my sister Suzanne, her son Brian and his family, and my brother Steve's son Nathaniel and his family--all St. George residents. We had a great evening.

I continue to be plagued with pain in my back, or at least in my ribs. When it first started a few weeks ago, the doctors thought it was a spinal problem, but after reviewing all my past x-ray reports, I think the problem may be in my ribs, perhaps from fractures I've had since getting cancer--ones I didn't even know about because I hadn't read the reports carefully. When we return home to Sandy I will get back together with my primary care doc, Reid Hales, to try to figure it out. It's really been slowing me down.