Cancer: a love story

BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE...

Yes, this is my Boston "home". No, I'm not kidding. In fact my room is the window on the second floor to the extreme right. It has a breathtaking view of the spacious lawn.

The "back yard"

The windows on the left on the first level are to the indoor swimming pool and the bank of windows above are to the kitchen, the warmest and most used room in this magnificent house. Among other things Frank is an excellent cook! This is his house. He is a self-made man who owns several companies, a Pilatus and a Citation jet both of which he flies, and he is a very supportive and generous friend. There are many people in Boston and Fort Lauderdale who have supported me in numerous ways during the difficulties of this physical journey but he is the one who has consistently provided the meta-support that has made my recovery work here possible. I can't imagine how much more difficult it all would have been without his contextual support.

********************

This house was designed by Robert Stearns , one of America's foremost architects. It is the most architectually flawless building I have ever experienced. If God is in the details then this is heaven. Nevertheless, it doesn't prevent me from whining. There are mornings when the ten-year-old inside me makes me quite nuts with his relentless insistence that we go home. I am exhausted from the past few weeks of operation, recovery, physical therapy, spot radiation, CT scans, and MRIs, doctors' appointments and walking on crutches. Help! Beam me up, down, sideways, anywhere but here, Scotty!

This is the current situation. I did not keep my flight to Florida on Friday at the request of my oncologist. Instead I had an MRI of my pelvis because of its proximity to my hip and femur where the cancer was doing its nasty little work, and an MRI of my elbow where I occasionally experience some pain. I will learn the results on Monday or Tuesday.

The problem is that for the past few years we have used monthly blood tests as an early warning system to keep tabs on the myeloma cells and to stay ahead of the cancer. This system obviously failed to warn us of the activity of the cancer in my femur and I came dangerously close to a fracture which is serious with this type of cancer. So now these MRIs will help serve as a baseline to measure future activity but mostly I will have to be aware, responsible, and not paranoid about any future pains anywhere in my 64 year old body so I can check them out for myeloma. And my second trick will be....

If the two recent MRIs return clear of cancer I hope to board the first available plane home. If cancer is present I will begin one or both treatments. The first would be more radiation which can take a week or two, and I may be able to do that in Florida. The second is a new chemotherapy which would consist of two IV shots per week given in a hospital and that I would definitely do at Holy Cross in Florida. The benefit of that treatment is that it is not processed through the kidneys therefore avoiding any further deterioration of my kidney functioning.

In conversation with Jeffrey yesterday morning we both realized that despite the sometimes overwhelming number of parameters, overall most of the information was positive. My heart and kidneys remain remarkably stable and even if the myeloma is active there does not appear to be any crisis. Of course, this could all turn on a dime. But couldn't anything?

My current intention is to leave Boston on Wednesday or Thursday. However, just remember that I have never been driving this bus!