We had our meeting with the Hematology-Oncology doctor about
the results of my bone marrow biopsy yesterday afternoon, and were met with
some unanticipated news. Where we
thought our preliminary glance at the results put us in the "great
news" category, it unfortunately did not.
Although the percentage of plasma cells found in my bone marrow is low,
it is still present, and along with another abnormal indicator of high light
chain protein ratio in my blood, and the bone lesion growth on my vertebrae, I
have been diagnosed with myeloma.
Myeloma is a type of blood cancer, and by the medical world, it is
considered non-curable, but treatable.
Obviously, the diagnosis hit us pretty hard and we still have a lot to
process, but it is good to know what is going on in my body, to the extent that
we can understand it anyway. With little
time to absorb the weight of everything, we moved right into what the treatment
would look like for me working with this team of doctors. Without going into too much detail, the general
approach is to push the cancer into remission using non-chemo drugs, which
could be about a four to six month process.
Apparently the advancements in the treatments for myeloma have been
exploding over the past few years, which has given the medical community very
effective, targeted medications that work much better than chemo treatments
they have used in the past. Once the
cancer is in a remission stage, we have the opportunity/option to do a bone
marrow transplant to get rid of the plasma cells that are present in my bone
marrow. There are different thoughts on
when a transplant should be done, so we will have consultations on that with
other specialists in the future. The
transplant would be done using my own stem cells, which they would only collect
after the cancer is in remission.
Apparently, similar to my radiation treatments now, I
probably won't have heavy side-effects that keep me from normal activities
during my remission treatments. How
great would that be! The remission
treatment schedule is much different than the radiation treatment schedule, so
it will be much easier to get back to a more normal routine. And, because the remission treatment cannot
be done at the same time as I am undergoing radiation treatment for my
vertebrae, we have a few weeks of breathing time to let everything soak in
before anything new starts.
So there's the facts…
Reading over it again, I can imagine how you may see the engineer in me
presenting a somewhat sterile diagnosis, but I'm sure you know that each word
is bleeding with emotion for us. I thank
the Lord for my beautiful, wonderful, loving wife who is always by my side to
take this in with me. She knows all the
right questions to ask when I only have a few, and together we are so much
stronger when this world throws us a curve ball. I am a rich man, that God has brought my
wonderful wife and I together, and delivered to us three absolutely beautiful
and amazing little ones.
I hesitate to share the doctors opinion of how many years I
may have left because there is not much to go on for my specific set of
symptoms and age and conditions. She
actually said I was a unique constellation…
So pretty much anyone can go online and find plenty of different
statistics and stories of myeloma remission and expectancies. But I won't hesitate to tell you that I
believe God created the universe and everything in it, and He knows about each
and every cell in my body. I believe
that His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, could place His
healing hand upon me and completely heal me today. I believe that with all my heart, but I also
believe that I have a purpose and a path, just for me… and it isn't always
clear how that works itself out in this world.
Thankfully I know, by the grace God has given me thus far in my life,
that it is He Himself who has numbered my days.
There is no doctor that knows, and there is no disease that has more
power than the Hand of God. He has given
me all the time I need to accomplish the work I have been created to do, and I
pray that I can use every day to the fullest to bring the glory, honor and
praise to Him who has adopted me as His own.
It is a blessing to walk through this with all of your
support…
Brady
Please be aware that we have not been talking to Sadie,
Wyatt and Samuel about many of the more difficult aspects of my condition. They know the word cancer, and they know that
I am being treated because I'm sick, but we are going to try to introduce this
new information at the appropriate times.
So if you are talking to me or Jasmine about anything, and our kids are
within earshot, please be very sensitive of your words. Thanks.
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