Dave Update-January 5, 2011



Ben, Granpa, Grandma, and Dave  (New Year's Eve)



Happy New Year to family and friends.  I can imagine everyone is making some kind of resolution for 2011 and I'm no different.  My resolution is to love more, appreciate more, and pray more.  My prayer for 2011 is that God will heal Dave's body and provide a loving embrace around Dave, my mom, grandma, and grandpa.

We had a great New Year's Eve and a last night with my baby brother Ben and his family before they headed back to Washington.  We listened to music and danced around to Squeeze Box while the kids ran through the house chasing each other.  Do you ever have those moments of complete happiness and contentment that you wish you could bottle up?  Watching my mom and Dave dance and seeing everyone laughing and enjoying each other was one of those moments for me. 

In terms of Dave's health, he has been experiencing some bone pain lately.  This is not unusal at all due to the fact that he has (osteolytic) lesions on both legs, both arms, and his scull.  70% of MM patients have lesions.  The presence of more than one lesion is why they call this cancer "multiple" myeloma.  The unusal part is that Dave hasn't had much bone pain since being diagnosed.  Bone pain is a very common symptom and the doctors are putting him on calcuim to strengthen his bones and he will also have a monthly treatment specifically aimed at treating and strengthening his bones.

Monday was a full day at the doctors for Dave.  He had his regular chemo treatment, his replacement immunoglobulin therapy treatment, as well as a battery of other tests, including a full skeletal scan to check on his bones.  Dave has a full week off until next Thursday when he will have chemo and a bone marrow biopsy.  This is very important and is the best overall picture we will get on how the chemo is killing the cancerous plasma cells (myeloma cell) found in his bone marrow.  And this is where I need your help.  Can you please say a special, specific prayer for Dave that his bone marrow test will come back as showing NO cancer!!  We need to see as little myeloma cells as possible to know we are on the right track and ready to make the next move.

Much Love
Jeana