08/06/09 Second Week of Treatment

08/06/09 Just a quick update and I will fill you in on more tonight the clinical trial was approved by the insurance company and Joe starts his first round of Chemo (Velcade) tomorrow. Yeah!!! Sorry we were so excited that the insurance company approved the clinical trial I wanted to get it out there to everyone as soon as as possible. So today was a real good day Joe woke up a little cranky but that was OK, hey who wouldn't be a little cranky in his shoes. I hardly slept at all last night and got up at 4:30 and put the tea pot on and tried to figure out what my issues were. By the time Joe got up I was fine and was ready to take care of him and anything else that came my way. We did not have to be to the Stem cell clinic until 10:00 today and once we arrived it was pretty comical a few of the nurses there started harassing Joe because they could tell he was a little miserable but he lightened up once he was weighed and we got inside the room. I think we both were just anxious to know if the insurance company approved the clinical trial or not. Oh by the way Joe did another 10,000,000 + stems cells on Tuesday so he is way over the 30,000,000 they wanted. So once they came in and told us that the clinical trial was approved we were just so happy. Let me explain why this clinical trial is so important to Joe's recovery and about primary amyliodosis it is a plasma cell disorder which originates in the bone marrow. The deposits in this type of the disease are made up of immunoglobulin light chain proteins which may be deposited in any bodily tissues or organs. The disease results when enough amyloid protein builds up in one or more organs to cause the organ(s) to malfunction. The heart, kidneys, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract are most often affected. Normally, bone marrow makes protective antibodies, which are proteins that protect against infection and disease. After they have served their function, these antibodies are broken down and recycled in the body. With amyloidosis, cells in the bone marrow produce antibodies that cannot be broken down. These antibodies then begin to build up in the bloodstream. Ultimately, they leave the bloodstream and can deposit in the tissues or organs as amyloid. Ok so with the treatments that Joe is going to receive the Hi dose chemo and stem cell transplant will take care of the plasma cell or the seed it will kill of the amyliods the Velcade (clinical trial drug) will treat the bone marrow or the soil that they cultivate in. So in theory this is what will raise Joe's complete remission rate from 50 to 70+%. Joe's kidneys, nervous system, bone marrow and spleen are affected with amyloid. Sorry to go through all that but wanted to help you understand why the clinical trial was so important to us. Big day tomorrow we start the first treatment of Velcade so tonight was the last night of normal as we know it so we decided to go to dinner, Joe has decided that nobody can do beef the way NY does. He will start his low bacteria diet now. We had along talk about how much life has changed from last year till now and how scared we both are but that we are ready for a fight. You never know how much you really love each other until you are going through something that takes every part of your being to get through. Well we have great family and friends to help us out and lots of prayers. So we love you all and thanks for all your messages it really makes are day to read them god bless.