... on the other hand...

Okay, here was my plan. In as much as I've been the relatively healthy since my stem cell transplant back on 9/1/2007, I'd thought I'd take some time bringing readers up to date on how I got here.

That was until this week. Monday morning I went to my local cancer center to have blood tests, see my doctor, and get an infusion of Zometa to strengthen my bones. after I got home I slept for over 48 hours and then awoke with a case of bronchitis (which had already passed through my wife and son and Cluster headaches which kept me off my computer until today.

Before I began Thalidomide and Dexamethasone (Thal-Dex) Therapy I had a history of debilitating cluster headaches which rendered me unable to drive, watch TV, or use a computer for often days at a time. More embarassingly I had an increasingly serious case of ulcerative colitis which was no longer controlled by the prescriptions that had kept it in check for over two years. Through compleatly a side effect of my treatment, the high doses of Dexamthasone I took from mid-April through mid-July of 2007 completely did away with my colitis and my headaches (place your rude joke here: ________________________________________.)

Late last week the colitis returned. This week the headaches returned. Yesterday morning I recieved a phone call from my oncologist's office. My IGg is at 1550 (from 1300 this time last year) and he wants me to take another blood test at the end of this month.

There may be no relationship between the headaches, the colitis and the Myeloma, but I know my history and I'm not a happy camper.

Welcome to the Blog

I originally set this blog up back around the time I was scheduled to have my stem cell transplant at the Mayo Clinic.

That was August 2007.

I had the transplant and forgot about the blog. Well, mostly forgot. I knew the idea was out there on the Blogger server just waiting to be picked up again. This year I decided I've been healthy enough to consider staying around for a while and, as long as I was taking up space I should probably do something about getting a job. My old job was in TV and there's no going back there, in fact my last employer just went through the it's second round of layoffs since I left. At one of my Myeloma support group meetings I heard that Minnesota Rehabilitation Services might pay for the cost of retraining. I gave them a visit, jumped through a few (months of) hoops and they agreed to help me take some classes at Saint Paul College.

I'm hoping to apply what I've learned from years in television and video to this new interweb thingy so I'm taking computer science and design classes. This week one of the classes had the assignment of creating a blog.

Oh yeah, that blog I was meaning to write... well here it is. Myelomapaloosa. A personal, often irreverent look at my journey through life spiced with just a little bit of cancer.

I hope you like it.