Soggy 4th

Rainbow in Newburyport

Usually, we go up to the farm in upstate New York over the 4th of July, but this year schedule conflicts got in the way, so we stayed home.  On the bright side, I saved about $200 on illegal fireworks.  Jason and his girlfriend, Jessica, came up Wednesday and Thursday.  Jeff joined us for a boat ride down the Merrimack River to Newburyport for dinner at the Black Cow on Wednesday.  On the way back, we dodged a few raindrops, but were treated to a beautiful rainbow.  It was a delightful evening on the water.

We hosted a cookout on Thursday with Jason, Jessica, Jeff, and Christine.  The weather, food, and company were all great.  Fortunately, we had no big plans for Friday, the 4th, when the deluge from Hurricane Arthur doused us thoroughly.  Still, we went to visit Gretchen's brother, John, and Kathy for an intimate family cookout.  My job was to hold the umbrella while John grilled chicken and burgers.  Due to inattentiveness, I kept dumping water off the umbrella onto him and the food, so I don't think I was much help.  I may lose my job for the next rainy cookout.

Interesting sculpture at Newcastle beach

Then on Saturday evening, Jeff and Christine came over for the night, and we spent Sunday at Great Island Common beach in Newcastle, NH.  There we had another cookout, walked the beach, and relaxed under the shade trees of this beautiful park.  A lovely day!

Except for Friday, the weather was great the whole time!  Looking back, I have warm memories of a wonderful time with our family.  The only thing missing was that our other two kids, Brian and family, and Holly and Ryan, weren't here.  That would have been a delectable icing on an already delicious cake.

Today I had my monthly visit to the Farber for blood tests and Zometa infusion.  The news was good!  My absolute neutrophil count (ANC), which was marginal last month at 1.09, rose to an almost normal level of 1.95 (normal is >2.0).  So I'm good to go with my Revlimid maintenance therapy for the next month.  My hematocrit also rose to 38.9 (normal range), the highest it has been since my diagnosis 3 years ago!  It appears that the iron supplements I am taking must be helping to reduce my anemia.  In other good news, I got my radiology report back from the complete bone survey x-rays I had done last month.  The bottom line is that there is no appreciable change from the survey a year ago!  Very good news, indeed.

A couple of things to note from the bone survey.  My skull showed small lucencies, which could either be due to benign "venous lakes" or "small myelomatous foci" (doc speak for MM lesions).  In any case, these have not changed since my first skeletal exam in 2011, so they are either benign or have remained under control since then.  Another notation of interest was: "Healed rib fractures involving at least the left fourth through 8th ribs appear unchanged from the prior exam".  Hmmm.  Do ya think that has anything to do with my fall from the ladder with the chain saw two years ago?  It certainly explains why I could barely get out of bed for next 6 weeks.  It was well-deserved punishment for my foolishness.

Dr. Richardson's nurse, Mary, indicated that since I have been on maintenance therapy for nearly two years now, I might be able to extend the Zometa infusion interval from one month to two or three.  She will check with Paul on that.  I won't get my hopes up, but that would be awesome.  Then I might be able to get my blood work done locally without fighting rush-hour traffic into Boston every month.  Please don't get me wrong here.  I am totally grateful that I am in remission and only have to go to the Farber once a month.  It could be so much worse.  I have no complaints whatsoever.  It's all good.