Catching Up... and Thanksgiving

Thanks Mom for posting your funny story (above).  So, I am finally catching up on our blog.  Pete and I just returned home to Virginia from Xenia, Ohio, after a great holiday with Mom.  We spent Thanksgiving with Sheri and family.  Sheri is the daughter of one of Mom's best friends ever, Pat Felton.  She loaded us up with all kinds of leftovers and sent us off feeling well loved.  We missed seeing my cousin Cathie, as her husband Dale has a flu bug.  My husband Pete and Petunia-Mom visited with her forever friend from Bowersville (school days), Jane, who was visiting Ohio from Delaware with her husband Bob.  They visited with Jane's sister, Lois, and her family, Sue and Roger, while I was catching up with friends from high school with whom I've reconnected with on Facebook.  We also spent a day with my brother Tony and his sparkling wife, Anna, seeing their beautiful home, meeting their snuffle bugs, JT (James Taylor, of course) and Coco (Chanel) - Yorkshire Terriers - and connecting even more.

Before this Thanksgiving visit, I spent a couple weeks with Mom in Xenia (though I had to work from there).  With her diligence and motivation, she found a new oncologist, Dr. Gordon, who we both loved.  He totally  "got" Mom and her wishes for quality of life and understands her sensitivity to medications.  He is not of the "my way or the highway" mentality of her last oncologist.   A blessing indeed.  Even better, we connected with some really special folks at a MM support group at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton - what a great group of people.  At this meeting, there were some tears, lots of stories shared and so many nods of agreement and understanding and support, and so, so much hope!  Every story told there included dire prognoses - months, a few years, five years, one year.  Amazingly, every. single. person. (no matter what stage) was well beyond - often by many many years - their prognosis. Mom and I left feeling connected and lifted by these wonderful people sharing their hope and experience. 

So, tomorrow Mom embarks on a low dose round of chemo. She's not thrilled... but she's staying Petunia-Frog-Eyes positive.  She has the support of us all, I know that, and she welcomes hearing from you (funny face pictures are always a bonus!).   She has much love behind her, and I have no doubt she will be in remission quicker than the blink of an eye.

The Why's of Petunia's Blog

I thought I would share what motivated me to start this blog.  The bottom line was that I realized that writing about my Mom's experience - and eventually allowing the blog to reach a wider audience - might actually encourage or inspire, give courage or hope to, or in some way help someone else who has multiple myeloma or other cancer, or help someone who loves someone with MM or cancer.  

All of  us know of or hear of or meet someone with cancer - it seems like it's everywhere.  In the space of a week, I had so many emails or talks with friends related to cancer.  It was weird. What really got me thinking about blogging (hoping that my Mom would write too) - was when two friends asked me to send them my Mom's multiple myeloma protocol - the supplements and things she is doing that have led to her remission of MM. 

There was my friend whose coworker's daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer; our friend who was diagnosed at age 46 (same age as me) with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had started chemotherapy; another friend who has a coworker who is facing, at age 36, a recurrence of her colon cancer.   There's my niece who was fighting cancer and lost the battle.  The last motivating straw was hearing about a dear friend's brother being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the same supposedly "rare" cancer as my Mom.  He was 49 at diagnosis and started chemotherapy for his MM (an update on him is that he is responding great to the treatment!).

What is going on? 

When faced with cancer - or disease of any kind - we all have to make our own difficult decisions, taking in all that we can to decide the best course. In this last year, we've learned so much about multiple myeloma, cancer in general, the billion dollar cancer industry, nutrition and supplements and the part they play in our health, and how to help the body fight cancer... the list is endless. 

I have some questions to pose:  What do you think about an adult's right to refuse treatment for cancer (or any disease) and to try alternative therapies, or to try nothing?  Is it an easy answer?  Have you ever contemplated this for yourself?

What's Up?

This blog hasn't received the attention from me that I hoped it would.  As with many new undertakings - life intervenes!  It was a busy summer with gardening.  Mom has been doing great.  We spent her 72nd birthday in June at Bethany Beach with family  (thanks to my in-laws having a wonderful place that they share), and we made a repeat trip back in September to celebrate my 47th birthday with more family.  Mom's markers (the classic "to watch" MM markers of beta 2 microglobulin, M protein, the IgG level, and the kappa serum light free chain) went up the last few months, out of the normal range.  This is when the oncologists usually recommend starting a new or different combination of treatment - chemo, that is.  We are in the process of revamping Mom's supplement MM protocol... and she is in the process of considering having a very low dose and short round of chemo to get those numbers back into the range.  She also started taking curcumin a few months ago.  Curcumin is the active ingredient in the spice turmeric.  It has lots of indications in helping multiple myeloma with no side effects.  I've "met" some awesome folks on Facebook, on the Multiple Myeloma Support Group (nonprofit) as well as on the forums at The Myeloma Beacon.  I will be adding some website links related to these items.