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Update on my wife

Well the results are in from the biopsy on the T2 vertebrae. It's plasmacytoma! The oncologist described it as a low grade cancer that is easily treated by radiation. Well I'm not sure that treating anything with radiation is easy. What she didn't mention was that it's called plasmacytoma when it is localized in one spot, and multiple myeloma when in multiple locations. So today the doctor is going to perform a BMB to check for the spread of the disease, and tomorrow she has an appointment scheduled with the radiation oncologist.

This certainly has served as a wake up call for me. With my MCL progressing so slowly, I almost feel as though I am not really sick, and this gives a lot more credibility to my post of a couple of days ago, The Future - It's not all it's cracked up to be

If there is to be at least one silver lining in all this, it is the health care provided by all the professionals at Kaiser Permanente. The dedication of everyone and the effort put forth in getting tests performed, and appointments scheduled has been extraordinary. In the last two weeks, since my wife's MRI showed the anomaly in her T2 vertebrae, she has had a bunch of blood work, a CT scan, bone scan, appointment with an oncologist and a biopsy of her T2 vertebrae. And today, as I mentioned earlier, she has a bone marrow biopsy scheduled, and an appointment with the radiation oncologist tomorrow.

I can't imagine we could have received any better care elsewhere!
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John Wagner said…
Marc,

Oh my goodness, I thought you guys were past this and she was OK. I am so very sorry! I Googled plasmacytoma, as I am sure you did, and found lots of information. An article on emedicine.com was particularly informative and it sounds like there is still much to be discovered with these further tests for your wife so they can pin down excactly what is going on. I am so glad she is receiving great health care, and from what I read, they are doing all the right things.

I can only begin to imagine the concern you have. I truly believe it is much more difficult to be the caregiver/loved one than it is to be the patient. Just a feeling of helplessness. When my kids or my wife have been very ill in the past, I just wanted to take their place, but couldn't.

I don't know if you follow David Arenson's Blog, but his most recent post is wonderfully written about a scare he had with his wife. It was initially written while he was in the waiting room of an emergency room. It is posted at
http://clldiary.blogspot.com/2006/04/other-foot.html
It can be a difficult read because the topic is about life and death, but I found it inspiring.

I will be looking for your your continued posts on her prognosis, treatment and restoration to full health. I am praying for you both!
2:58 AM
Marc said…
Thanks John! I thought we were mostly passed all that, but that's why she had the biopsy on the T2 vertebrae, just to make sure. Beyond the T2 vertebrae, there is no evidence that the cancer has spread anywhere else. So that is a good sign, but the oncologist did order more test, including a flow cytometry of the bone marrow. We'll know more next week.

In the mean time, she had a skeletel survey done this afternoon, and is scheduled to see the radiation oncologist tomorrow. She has also been referred to an othopedic oncologist, but no one has called from that department just yet.

Hopefully the radiation can put an end to this for a long while, and without any severe side effects. My biggest concern is the potential is for the developement of Mulitple Myeloma some time down the road, which is apparently quite probable. I just hope it's a long time down the road.

So the key now is to get her feeling better now, and then we can start getting caught up on all the things we want to do.
7:01 AM
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