My Tempur-Pedic bed was delivered today. Boy, is it nice! It’s adjustable and has a massage feature. The massage is very noisy, so it’s not very relaxing. No, it’s not like those Magic Fingers boxes you used to see in motels. It’s great to be able to elevate my legs or upper body. This one has a 10″ mattress. I had a choice between that, and the standard 8″ mattress. I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight so I can experience slumber on a Tempur-Pedic. I got a free Comfort Pillow with my purchase! (I know, I know… nothing’s ever really free.)
Author: Beth
This was at a company picnic about 13 years ago! My sister and I were hamming it up for the photo. There’s nothing like an aluminum pan of rolls to brighten one’s day.
Sometimes I get really nostalgic for the past. It happens more now that I have this disease. I wonder what happened to all those years. They flew by so quickly, and I feel like I accomplished so little during that time. I know it’s not productive to lament the passage of time like that, but I can’t help wondering if it’s a common thing to do when you have a disease that’s described as fatal. It’s not an, “I don’t want to die!” feeling. It’s more of a “where did all the time go?” thing.
I bought a copy of Multiple Myeloma (on ebay for less than $10), edited by Gahrton & Durie. Chapter 1 is very interesting. Written by Robert Kyle, it covers a history of multiple myeloma. Some early cases are included. One patient was treated with leeches and the removal of a pound of blood. Later, he had “steel and quinine therapy,” whatever that is. Another patient received a rhubarb pill and an infusion of orange peel as her treatment in a London hospital. Both were patients of Henry Bence Jones. That’s a familiar name to those of us with MM. Bence Jones identified the protein in urine (he called it “animal matter”) that’s often seen with MM patients.
Some of the most respected MM specialists have books on myeloma being published: Anderson & Richardson, Bergsagel (ed.), Gertz & Greipp (ed.) and Berenson (ed.).
Dex gives me a ravenous appetite at times. I’ve heard from people who have gained 50-100 lbs while taking steroids. I’ve gained about 20-25 lbs myself. I don’t want to gain any more. My doctor tells me not to berate myself for not being able to lose weight while on dex, but I want to at least keep from gaining any more.
One thing that helped me was the change in my dex schedule. When I took it weekly, it affected my appetite more. Now that I take it monthly, I may pig out about 4-5 days during the month. Before, it was a few days a week!
Since many questions about drug interactions and side effects come up, I wanted to let everyone know about ePocrates Rx for handhelds. It’s a free program you can download for your PDA. I can look up a drug on my Palm Pilot and see how it’s covered by my insurance, whether it interacts with any other meds I’m taking and what the possible side effects could be. It’s really amazing, especially since it’s free.
I may subscribe to the Pro version, which is about $60 a year. It includes monographs for alternative remedies.
Here’s the URL:
http://www.epocrates.com/
In October I had blood drawn at my local clinic, rather than at UNC, since my doctor was out of the country. The local clinic folks couldn’t find the report when I was there for my appointiment, but said everything “looked ok!” At first I didn’t think it mattered that much to me, since I feel pretty well, and another appointment is just around the corner for me. When I saw my explanation of benefits from BCBS of NC come in the mail though, I decided I need to have the lab reports! My insurance company was charged about $225 for those tests! I’ll call today and ask for them again. Even if they can’t find the reports, I’m sure they can easily get a duplicate. The results are all in a computer someplace, right?
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