Beth Morgan Multiple Myeloma Treatment Blog

My forecast for today is hot and partly swimmy. I have to be careful about being in the sun too much. I use sunscreen, but forget to keep reapplying it. Then I get burned.

Yesterday was fun. Jacob came over and we spent a couple of hours outside playing. It’s fun to toss him into the pool. He likes it, anyway. We went to see Elyssa at her dance recital, which was also fun. There was a beach theme. The music was mostly Beach Boys. After it was over, we all went to dinner.

Friday, I was kind of bored, but then Dar called and we went to dinner. She loves Kenny Chesney. I’ve never liked country music. Tickets went on sale for a concert in Raleigh in August on Saturday morning. She got up at 4 am and went to wait in line. Within 5 minutes they were sold out. Within a few more minutes, they were on eBay, going for 2-3 times face value. In North Carolina, that’s a class 2 misdemeanor. It’s called ticket scapling, whether it’s done online or in a parking lot or street corner. I actually think it should be more than a misdemeanor.

We’ve been having great weather here. It’s not quite warm enough to swim, but I do it anyway. Once the initial shock of the cold wears off, it’s fun. What’s more fun is when the kids are here. We have a floating basketball thingy to play with, for one thing.

My dog has shown no interest in being in the water. I think it has to be disgusting, smelly and muddy for him to want to jump in. I’m not sure I want to encourage him to be in the pool.

We’re doing a lot of work on the yard. It’s no longer looking so much like a construction site. I planted stuff, and am hoping it doesn’t all die. I’m trying to pay more attention to taking care of the things that live in my yard.

I’ve been very, very crabby lately. I think it’s because I just came off of 4 months of high dose dex. I’m not sure. I’ll have to report this to my doctor when I see him next week. I don’t want to take more dex, so that’s not a solution to the problem. I also think that I may be having a hard time dealing with a cancer for which there’s no cure. For me, it’s been 3+ years of constant treatment and I haven’t been able to stop without seeing my IgA take off. It makes me consider, more and more, doing a stem cell transplant. I’ll see Dr. Durie in August at the IMF patient & family seminar, so I can ask him what he thinks. He has told me before that my MM isn’t aggressive enough to warrant a SCT. I wonder about my QOL though. SCT could possibly give me years of remission (or not — who knows?). I still have a few more month on this Rev/dex EAP, so I will stay on that until the drug is no longer free.

I apologize to friends & family to whom I’ve been short or have been ignoring in an effort to avoid having to interact with people. I need this time to myself and it’s better that I not offend people for now. I hope you’ll understand!

When you have a pool, you have to turn off the pump at night. If you don’t, you’ll find dead animals in your skimmer. I found a product called FrogLog, that I set up at night to help little animals get out of the pool if they fall in. Since I’ve been turning off the pump and setting out the FrogLogs, I haven’t found anything in my skimmer, thank goodness. Tonight though, I did find a mouse swimming. I fished him out with a net, but I think he was beyond exhaustion. He hasn’t moved since I set him down on a soft bit of grass. I hope he recovers. I don’t know what else I can do for him. I’ll check on him later. For now, I would guess he needs to rest and not have the bejesus scared out of him by a giant with a flashlight every few minutes.

I’ll be going to the IMF seminar in Philadelphia in August with my friend J. We’ll drive up on the 4th so we can be there on the 5th. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again (Suzanne, Susie, Dr. Durie). JG lives nearby, so I’ll make some time to stop & see her.

This time, I’ll make sure I’m not taking dex during the trip. In times past, I’ve been so worn out from dex that I had to take time to crash during the sessions. Since I’m on standard dose dex now, I can take it on 4 days after I get home.