new beginnings.....

It has been a long time since my last post....so sorry everyone! Things are going very well here! At almost exactly 1 year from being diagnosed with multiple myeloma we got the news we have been praying for....REMISSION! To make a long story short, all has been going well....a few bumps in the road, urgent care visits, one 3 day hospital stay due to adult onset asthma! He did turn some heads while at wake med since his buddies in blue came by to see him...nurses thought he had done something wrong! pretty funny!
Ben turned 6 last week and bella will be turning 2 on june 26! my how time flies!
Keith continues to receive treatment once a month at his oncologist in Raleigh to strengthen his bones. It is called Zometa and it is an IV infusion, and it has side effects of its own, but we do what we must do!
Thank you all for the support and prayers and love. Multiple Myeloma is an incurable cancer, but we are very hopeful we will obtain a very long remission with the stem cell transplant. This disease is one that has lots of promise for a cure with new treatments coming about all the time. Please don't forget us in your prayers, we still struggle every day.
Keith has gained most of his weight back, all of his hair back and a lot of strength back. He is still however in constant pain due to the damage to his bones from the myeloma. The treatment he received will not repair the damage that has been done unfortunately. His bones are very soft and weak still and will probably never get a lot better...but he is alive and functional and is able to play with our children!
He is working light duty still at Cary PD....don't know when/if he will return to patrol or what capacity he will, but he is being taken care of, which is what good people do! I cannot commend the officers and staff with the town of cary enough. they have all been nothing less than awesome and we are so grateful to have such wonderful people on our side.
I will try and do better with keeping up the blog! it has been a busy few months! Softball season has begun for me and ben is playing coach pitch baseball and still in gymnastics!
Thanks everyone!

never a dull moment....

Things have been going pretty well for all of us. Keith returned to light duty work 3 days per week (12 hour shifts) a few weeks ago. He seems to be doing well with it so far. We do miss him when he isn't here!
Other than a few small bugs, viruses and a bought with pink eye, we are all doing well. Ben had an incident with some type of allergic reaction where he had facial swelling and an itchy mouth/throat. We are pretty sure it was a blow up ball pit that bella got for Christmas. He has been put thru allergy testing and are still waiting to hear from latex and ibuprofen allergies!
On a heavier note, a young mother in Lillington is in the fight of her life right now. She was diagnosed with melanoma around the same time as keith got his diagnosis and she is not doing well. From what I understand she can no longer take chemo and the docs recommend hospice, although i am not sure they have actually called them yet. Ben went to preschool with her youngest son for 2 years. She is a wonderful person and is only 36 years old. My blogs are normally filled with my usual dark humor and sarcasm, today it is filled with heartbreak for a family that does not deserve such sorrow. Please pray for them and especially the kids. Her name is Ann Bethune Mewborn and she is the sweetest person and so is her family.
My heart is so heavy for them knowing what they must be going thru and yet not knowing. You can never know what someone is going thru at a time like this as much as you think you do.
Pray for them and for us in the hopes that we will all kick cancer's evil butt and it will never be heard from again. As I read recently: Our God is bigger than cancer.
Amen.

update 2011

So a lot has gone on since I last posted. First of all, the MRI of keith's back showed that what we thought were 2 new fractures were not new at all. They are old ones that are healing. Good news! This means NEW Myeloma didn't cause them. I supposed OLD myeloma did, but at least they aren't new. Bad news is he can't get them fixed surgically. They recommended physical therapy which he has been doing and although it is brutal, it seems to be helping. He still has chronic pain every day, but he is coping well with it.

We went to UNC Dec. 16 for his recheck since the transplant. His CBC (complete blood count) looked fantastic. His other labwork was pending, but I assume it is ok since we haven't heard. They decided to wait until the 6 month mark to do the bone marrow biopsy, which will be March 17. It was bittersweet. Wanted to get it over with and find out results, but Keith was relieved that he didn't have to have the lightpole sized needled stuck in his hip! So we wait......Keith may have to take chemo again at a very low dose with no steroids depending on what the test results say. Doc says some people opt to do that and some people wait to see if myeloma pops up and then do something. We will just have to wait and see and weigh the pros and cons.

He goes back to Dr. Wehbie in Wakefield tomorrow for his monthly visit, then Wednesday for more PT and recheck with the Cary Spine Center.
Christmas was great. All of us except Ben had a horrible stomach bug, but we have all since bounced back. The kids had a great Christmas. It was great to have Keith here with us.

The kids are very happy to see Keith being more active with them every day and so am I. I wasn't sure we would ever get back to that, but it looks promising now.

Thanks to everyone for their continued prayers and support. Unfortunately since this blog, another Cary Officer has also been diagnosed with cancer and will be undergoing aggressive treatment. His name is Matt. Please pray for him and his family and they have a tough road to travel.