A great appointment!

Today I had a follow up appointment with Dr. Sarriera at UF Health Cancer Center.  Labs were drawn at Quest last Monday and there for him to see the results.  He was very pleased with what he saw.  Very pleased with my progress so far.  Very pleased to hear how much I was walking.  Said miles do not count as much as time does.  We discussed, again, the (childhood) immunizations that I need to get.  We are to discuss this with Dr. Ochoa when we go to Moffit next month.   Dr. Sarriera also discussed my maintenance.  We are going to go to 2.5 mg of Revlimid to see if I can tolerate Revlimid (this was the drug that I broke out in hives from when all this first started).  He is waiting to start this until after I have my appointment with Dr. Ochoa.  From looking at the labs, there are no cancer cells showing up but since we know that Multiple Myeloma isn't curable, there are some cells floating around in there but they are not measurable at this time.  Thus the maintenance program.  He also reminded us that it will be six to 12 months till my immune system will be pretty much back to normal.  I need to continue building up my strength taking one day at a time.  Dr. Sarriera told me it was okay to have down days, sad days, crying days.  These things are all a part of my journey.  My journey to feel like myself again.  My journey to have my strength back.  My journey to have my hair back.  My journey to be able to smile a real, meaningful smile.

Quote:

Hope is like the sun, as we journey towards it, it casts the shadow of our burden behind us.