#10

On Monday, Joe had bone marrow biopsy #10. (Amy W., we hear that you're getting #10 pretty soon too. And so the competition continues!) Since Joe had the biopsy as an in-patient, he had the privileges of getting all morphined up. The plan is that if the marrow shows less than 20% blasts, Joe will likely get another round of Dacogen/Decitabine. If the marrow shows greater than 20% blasts then Joe will be started on induction chemo. The induction chemo is a 7-10 regimen that has the intent of bringing Joe back to remission. There are several chemo "cocktails" that can be given - some more aggressive than others. All of them are pretty powerful though, and the recovery period is generally one month.

By this morning at 8am the doctors were supposed to have some preliminary results. They were also planning on taking thoses results and having a meeting about what's next. We haven't heard anything yet.

Joe's breathing has been pretty stable for the past few days. He is still on 2L of oxygen, but episodes of being really short of breath seem to be decreasing in number and duration. Joe is still experiencing fevers as well. None of them are too high, and they are all manageable.

The toughie these past few days is that Joe has been experiencing a lot of pain from things that aren't necessarily directly related to his disease. When Joe isn't feeling physical pain it is not so hard to stay positive and look at the greater picture. But when Joe is feeling physical pain. That's really difficult to deal with. It just seems so unfair that with everything Joe is already experiencing that extra torture has to be thrown in there to make things even more difficult. Well, there is no denying that Joe is a tough guy. He will get past this hurdle, just as he's passed so may others.

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I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
~Psalm 130:5