OK - so, I 100% meant to blog last week during Cycle 3, week 4...which was our first off week.
Nothing.
No appointment. No labs. No results.
I think, instead of blogging about our off week, we were too busy trying to distract ourselves from having an off week. It sounds great - doesn't it? But you have to realize, for the last 90 days, (EXACTLY 90 days ago today) we have LIVED for our numbers. Numbers are good - we feel good. Numbers are bad - we worry and are sad.
AND, not only were we trying to ignore the fact that we didn't have labs to rely on, but turns out Andy's spike in WBC was warranted, because something nasty spread through our house and resulted in Andy and I feeling generally miserable for several days. Thankfully, both kids avoided it.
So - today is the start of a new cycle, which means we headed to Menomonee Falls to meet with Dr. Al.
Andy got in early for labs, and luckily, we received labs so quickly too.
Hg - 14 - up from 13.4 (14. This is the number we have always been told is the 'normal'. We would always hear things like 'You and I are at 14...Andy was at 5'). Now Andy is 'normal'.
Platelet - 353 - up from 252
ANC - 3.7 - DOWN from 11.1. Remember how much I was worried about this number (well, I really was) What an amazing indicator of this ick that was about to descend onto our house!
We got called back quickly and went through initial vitals. Between nurse one and nurse two, Andy's calcium and protein numbers came back.
Calcium - 9.6 up from 8.8
Protein - 6.9 down from 7.1. And this number is so important, because it means that Andy's body had an infection, fought the infection, and appropriately processed the infection and corresponding protein cells out of his body. It was - an amazing feeling.
I'm not going to lie. At one point, I had this nagging thought - are we moving through these appointments so fast because Dr. Al wants to see us because he has something bad to tell us?
But then Dr. Al walked in. You guys. I love this man. He walks in with a huge smile on his face. He said something about enjoying seeing the big smile on Andy's face. We said something about enjoying seeing the big smile on his face. And he said something about, it's easy to smile when there is "NOTHING BUT GOOD NEWS". I wrote that down. Because I wanted to remember it forever.
Dr. Al said, let's go through your cancer numbers - this number, good. This number, good. This number, remarkable. He said something about taking our life back.
He asked if we had any questions. We said it was all just crazy. He said, it's a "REMARKABLE RECOVERY IN SUCH A SHORT TIME." I wrote that quote down too, because I never wanted to forget it. He even said, there is a chance we could hit the IgG number of 0 before a SCT.
**OK, side note - I forgot to blog that we also receive the IgG number two weeks ago, but I didn't blog about it because we got the test result on a Friday night at 8:30 and while it was good news, I still felt very attacked and assaulted with this information so late at night. But the number went from 1.59 to .91. POINT NINE ONE!** We want this number to be 0 and now Dr. Al is like...well...maybe it could be 0.
Dr. Al gave Andy his physical assessment and we were done with Dr. Al for another month.
He walked out of the room and we just sat there.
I really can't explain to you what we were thinking. Maybe we weren't thinking anything. Maybe we were thinking everything. It sometimes feels fake. Like how has this been 90 days? The rollercoaster. Instead we just said, Wow. Smiled. And walked to treatment.
Treatment was fairly uneventful. Because of his awesome Calcium numbers, we got an infusion of Zometa and then Dara and Velcade. And then we left.
We got in the car. We drove away. We talked about the beautiful sun. We talked about the kids playing outside without coats on. I'm not going to lie - we felt a little like we were floating.
It's cancer. Tomorrow is another day. But today was a good day. We got good news. We smiled. We exhaled and we breathed. Good news is still just as exhausting as 'bad news' because you realize you are holding your breath and walking around waiting.
Prayer warriors - ACTIVATE! Our next appointment is on Wednesday with Dr. A for our Stem Cell Transplant consult. And according to Dr. Al, things look great and we should be all systems go to start planning! We'll keep you all posted!