Here we go!

The first doctor we visited was our family doctor who took one look at the bump on Alan's chest, which had grown since I first felt it three days before, and sent him to an oncologist. I don't recall his name, but he checked Alan out the same day, ordered an MRI, and when Alan went back, he said the bump was something called a plasmacytoma and it was nothing to worry about, but he was referring Alan to another oncologist, Dr. Robert Cody, and he would tell him (us) what the procedure was for removing the plasmacytoma. Well, what the first doctor didn't tell us was that Alan also had multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer, often called blood cancer, but it is not blood cancer, but it is bone marrow cancer). The MRI showed that graphically, and the plasma thing was a result of the MM racing through Alan's body. The doctor warned him to not lift anything heavy, to not ride his tractor to mow the lawn, to basically try not to move very much because his bones were breaking and they were very weak and he could break more bones very easily. The plasmacytoma had broken his sternum. Doctor Cody referred Alan to the team of oncologists at the University of Arkansas where they do nothing but work on MM patients, testing new drugs, new methods, etc. Alan was assigned to a test group where he would have two autologous bone marrow transplants and months of chemo before and after the transplants. An autologous transplant is where the patient's own stem cells are used to in the transplant instead of getting cells from someone who is compatible. The stems are collected in a process call aphoresis. After being told by Dr. Cody that Alan had maybe one year to live if he did not get any treatment, and after several hours of prayer, Alan believed God wanted him to do what the doctors said to do and he was ready to do that. With treatment he might (MIGHT) have five years. So, we travelled out to Arkansas for Alan's first round of treatments to get him read for the bone marrow transplant #1. More to follow. ttfn