Cancer changes everything. One day you’re a couple and you’re just going along doing your thing and then BOOM. Roles get switched up and you go from romantic life partners to patient and caregiver and you have to really work at not JUST being the latter. But it’s hard. For both people. Continue reading

fter a pretty rough couple of weeks, he’s finally STARTING to feel a little better. The timeframe we were given of Day 7-10 being “rock bottom” wasn’t completely accurate. He was still having significant side effects from the chemotherapy into early this past week. Thankfully, his blood pressure and heart rate issues were just a one-time occurrence, but the nausea, vomiting and added fun of diarrhea were kicking his ass until late Monday night. Continue reading

Dan has to go to the hospital every morning for labs and vitals. Other than losing weight, everything actually looked well. His blood counts were “excellent” and everything else was in the normal range. Yesterday, Tuesday, was the worst day so far. Continue reading

09.17.2020 I finally fell asleep for real at 4 AM and slept until 7:30 AM. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was the best stretch of sleep I’ve had since arriving. I woke up and took a shower, visited with the doctor for a few minutes, then got myself... Continue reading

The chemo gets loaded into my handy chest tube. It goes quickly. I continue chewing the ice. And I chew for another two hours afterwards. I had a vanilla flavored ice cream cup in the middle just for a change of pace. Continue reading

Overall, we are both doing well. Dan has had a really good attitude throughout this whole thing. He’s remained positive, optimistic and hopeful. As it gets closer to the transplant date, he is a bit more anxious and had a rough day emotionally this past Saturday. He’s been through a lot. Dealing with all of this during a pandemic makes it more challenging in one way, but makes it easier in other ways. Cancer is not for the faint of heart and although it was hard to see him struggling this weekend, I’m glad he allows himself to feel the feelings. I think he tries to be “brave” for me and while I do get a lot of my strength from his attitude, I don’t want him to hide what he’s feeling. It’s healthier to let it out. Continue reading

First off, there is one thing to remember with this blog: no news will ALWAYS be good news. We are so grateful for everyone who has called, texted or emailed asking for updates. Your continued concern and interest mean so much to us. Continue reading

I had such great hope for this day. Some of the staples in life are hard to come by these days. For a few days now, we had been planning on taking advantage of the Sam’s Club Old Folks and At-Risk Folks early opening at 7 AM. Surely there would... Continue reading

Although a pandemic on the planet has thrown something of a wrench into this new routine, I feel extremely fortunate to not have experienced any noticeable side-effects so far - almost four months into this adventure. I'm not "elderly", but I am in the danger zone for getting sick because my immunities are drastically lowered by the cancer and the treatments. Being glued to CNN and MSNBC for most of the evening doesn't help. Nancy has been more cautious than I for a longer period of time. But now I'm just terrified of having to be anywhere anyone else is - or ever was - at any time. It's going to be a long spring and summer. I'm glad Nancy is here. And everyone else is just a message or video chat away. Continue reading

Soooo...how is everyone doing? These are definitely some strange times we're all experiencing, right? ...PLEASE follow the guidelines that have been put in place so we can "flatten the curve" on new cases of Covid 19. Its not "just' those who have cancer or are elderly...even though I hate saying "just" because unfortunately that represents A LOT of people - people whose lives are just as precious as everyone else's. Continue reading

Nothing much to speak of on my end. I start weaning myself off the back brace on the 13th. It was the 3 month mark of rebuilding the vertebrae crushed by the Multiple Myeloma mass. Right back atcha MM! I just started Round #4 of the chemotherapy. So far so... Continue reading

Greetings blog readers. It’s Nancy with an embarrassingly late update. For the last ten weeks, I’ve had these really great intentions of sitting down and writing an update. You know what they say about intentions, soooo… First, the first headlines: Dan is doing really well. He continues to be on... Continue reading

Since this diagnosis, my perspective has changed - on just about everything. Things that would have annoyed the hell out of me before, now just seem to be something else in my day that will pass. I got a little down when this was all heaped on me. Afterall, I did have crushed vertebrae in my back and it was caused by multiple myeloma -- and all of that felt like a pretty big deal. But since then? Like I said, there's a new attitude. Continue reading

This link is the article that Dan and Nancy found shortly after the diagnosis that made them feel more hopeful. According to Nancy, finding this interview with Tom Brokaw "we felt it was the universe telling us that things were going to be OK. There's a link to a podcast interview with Jane Pauley in this article as well. Continue reading

Having an MRI reminded me of a blog post Nancy wrote a few years ago on another web-neighborhood platform where we used to belong and post. She doesn't do MRIs very well. Below is her post. I still crack-up thinking about it. Continue reading

This is a post I never wanted nor thought I'd be writing. Because my sister Patty tells me that I “bury the lede”, here it is… On Friday, November 22, Dan was officially diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (MM). Multiple Myeloma is a fairly rare form of blood cancer. The cancer is in the plasma cells that as it grows, it crowds out the healthy cells in the bone marrow. This causes bone pain and a weakened structure within the bones themselves. I say “officially” diagnosed because we had been given a working diagnosis of MM about a week and a half earlier. Continue reading

$120,000: Median net worth of American family $1,847,500: Median net worth of the "Super Congress" $883,500: Median net worth of Democrats the "Super Congress" $7,708,000: Median net worth of Republicans the "Super Congress" [via OpenSecrets and Mother Jones] Continue reading

Off-to-college road trip planning parent asks, are there some personal favorite places, hot springs or otherwise, we should visit on the trip from the Bay Area to Walla Walla, Washington? Continue reading