#mmrf

As early as 2 weeks ago, I came up with my own war fight, and only yesterday I got around to drawing my child). His name is Skojar, translated from Swedish means "prankster", "joker" or "noise". He chose this name himself, or rather, found it in an old half-surviving magazine that was written in another language. As a war pup, he asked the older war boy to read this word, and by the sound, he liked this name.

He does not remember his former name, which means that he did not appear in the Citadel at all. He managed to climb onto one of the war boys' car, thereby getting into the Citadel. And when the owners of the car in which he made his way began to repair, they found him.

He received scars on one of the raids, when he was about 23 years old. The porcupine attacked him with a whip, leaving these visible scars on him.

위대함의 대가는 책임입니다

El precio de la grandeza es responsabilidad

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/news-still-good/

The news is still good!

Monday I paid my my monthly visit to the Farber. The news is still good! My blood work came out fine and I got the printout of my annual bone marrow biopsy pathology report. In my last post, I mentioned that the bone marrow aspirate contained 7% plasma cells. I lied. Actually, it was 8%. Last year it was 6%. I asked Mary about this, and she said that Paul Richardson had reviewed the report and said it is no problem. Whew! I still find that a little worrisome, however, since the standard criterion for complete remission is less than 5% plasma cells. I might just have a little chat with Paul about this one of these days.

The best thing about the bone marrow pathology report was the conclusion: “Diagnostic features of involvement by a plasma cell neoplasm are not seen”. I find it amusing to read doctor speak. Notice the circumlocution and passive voice of this sentence. It’s as if the author doesn’t want to take actual responsibility for this conclusion and chooses to cloak it in obfuscatory language (like what I did just now).

So what is a neoplasm anyway? It sounds a bit ominous. The term “neoplasm” is medical terminology for abnormal cell growth. So why couldn’t they just have said simply, “We found no abnormal plasma cells”? That would be straight to the point. I guess that wouldn’t sound erudite enough for the medical community, so they have to use pompous officious-sounding verbiage to impress one another. I’ve gotten used to reading this kind of crappola over the last number of years of research and trying to translate it into understandable English. Anyway, hurray! I’m closing in on 5 years since my initial diagnosis and it’s all good!

Only 4 days to go until the MMRF Boston 5K Walk/Run event in South Boston! I’m overwhelmed that we have over 30 registered participants who plan to either run or walk with us in support of Team Epic for Bill on Sunday. I’m also pleased that our fundraising is going very well, with over $9,000 of contributions to date. We’re still a little short of our $10,000 goal, but I am delighted with the outpouring of support we have gotten for this worthy cause. I am very thankful for the many family members and friends who have made donations. Because of our successful fundraising efforts, the MMRF has designated Team Epic for Bill as a “Top Team”, so they will provide us with our own tent where our team can congregate. Great!

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/long-absence/

Long Absence

It has been so long since I last posted that I almost forgot how to find this blog site. I could say that it has been too long, but that would grossly understate the situation. Anyway, like a Phoenix, I have arisen from the ashes.

Early arrivals at our tent The MMRF Boston 5K Run/walk was held at Carson Beach in South Boston on April 30. This was our second year for this fundraising event. Team Epic for Bill raised over $8,500 for Multiple Myeloma research! While this was a little short of last year’s total, it was a very successful fundraiser, and I’m very happy and grateful that so many people contributed to this worthy cause. We had 25 participants show up to walk or run with us that day. The weather was pretty good. It didn’t rain, but it was somewhat chilly. I’m very proud of myself. I walked the course in 1 hour 8 minutes, which beat my last year’s time by 2 minutes. Who knows how great I might be next year?

Team Epic for Bill The Boston 5K event raised over $640,000 for the MMRF this year. Pam’s sister, Michelle, provided us all with tee shirts. The bright green color allowed us all to identify each other easily in the crowd. After the event, we celebrated by gathering at Coppersmiths in South Boston, where we enjoyed a delightful brunch with a fantastic Bloody Mary bar! It was a wonderful day! By the way, the dog in the team picture was not an official entrant. 😉

Brian, Pam, and Logan at Half Marathon

Last weekend, I went to Pennsylvania to watch Brian and Pam run in the Pittsburgh half marathon. I stayed with my brother, Terry, and his wife, Sherry, which was delightful. We also got together with my sister-in-law, Kathy, and my grand nephews, Chase and Lincoln, while there. It was a nice family reunion, which we don’t get to do often enough. I also got to spend some quality time with my grandson, Logan, which was a treat.

As to other things going on, Gretchen is finally recovering remarkably well from her esophagus surgery. It’s been a long time, but her appetite finally is back and she has stopped losing weight. It’s been a tough time with all the medical events, but I think things are starting to settle down.

As for me, I’m still doing amazingly well. I had a bone marrow biopsy in March which showed that the myeloma is still in remission, thank goodness. All my other blood tests are coming back normal, so it’s all good. I’ve been very lucky so far.

As for my diagnosis with squamous cell carcinoma, I got some weird suggestions from my local dermatologists, so I decided to go to Dana Farber for expert advice. I found an amazing specialist, Dr. Chrisalyne Schmults, who agreed to do Mohs surgery on my forehead. She did the surgery on March 15, and she got it all on the first try. I’ve healed up well and you can’t even notice the scar. I can’t praise Dana Farber enough! Thank goodness they are there for me.