How Am I Doing With Multiple Myeloma?

 

I said no more daily reports.  But here is an update on my treatment as I enter month 9 of 12.  The oncologist says I am doing great. Thank God for taking me this far, thus far. Amen

Health,   Supplements,  and Medication

 Marvin Dittfurth

 

GENERAL HEALTH

Most days, I feel good and can almost do what I used to do before all this.  I have no pain except self-induced from doing too much physical work or exercise. Have not taken any pain meds (even over the counter) since the start of treatment.  I have not had a fever. Bowels are good, leaning more to the constipation side, but generally prunes and almonds are good enough. 

There have been bouts of energy drops, but none in the last few weeks.  They had been diminishing in intensity and duration as I learned to adapt to treatment.  I scale the length and intensity of exercise and outside work, with treatment.  Going from less to more exercise from treatment and adding on as the week progresses.  

No bladder issues that I  know of. I drink a lot of water.  Blood pressure (at home) has been from 147/74 down to 112/68 this year. I do an average of about 10 hours a week of exercise.  (walking, indoor bike, weights, and stair climbing, plus outside working.

Supplements:                                                                                                  Daily

B-12                                                                                       Handful of roasted almonds

Zinc                                                                                       Handful pumpkin seeds

Magnesium                                                                            3-4 prunes

Omega-3                                                                                Sunflower seeds

D-3

Calcium Gummies (3

Medication:

Lenalidomide   14 days on 14 days off-  (Side effects: ankle swelling, which goes away with massage, raised feet, or sleeping overnight.)

Dexamethone (steroids)  ( very sleepy at first, then wired, shaky inside sometimes, restless sleep,   temptation to do too much)

Velcade (no noticeable side effects)

Darsalex    (some shortness of breath and congestion were noticed in the first few days after treatment, but none were noticed during the last treatment

Zometa (bone builder)  (no noticeable side effects)

 

Pepcid, fluid medication, and potassium

Montelukast (asthma)

Warfarin      (blood thinner)

Viral Medication

                             Temp   HR     Ox                                             BP                                                                      

Mon Jue 22	97.2	54	98	Treatment Darsalex, steroid, Velcade	126/69 home		213.8	At Induction

 

Tues June 23	97.3	55	97		136/68/53 am
Wed June 24	97.3	53	98	83 AM Glucose	125/69/39AM		217
Thur June 25	97.2	38	99		127/66/43am		216.8
Fri June 26	97.2	43	99	92 AM Glucose	127/63/41AM
Sat June 27	97.2	43	98		130/70/46am
Sun June 28	97.2	40	98		125/65/44 am		212.8

 

A Triathlon Just a Few Weeks After Rotator Cuff Surgery

 

Athens Triathlon

March 6, 2010

Athens, Texas

 

300 yd swim-14-mile bike-5k run

 

It had been 16 days since the doctor released me following rotator cuff surgery. My goal was to just get through this to see where I was at. It would be my 5th to have done this event so that lent some familiarity to the experience for testing my shoulder and level of fitness.

Seeding myself about 2 1/2 minutes slower in the swim seemed like the right thing to do considering my recent rotator cuff surgery, but I soon found that wrong.  I was in more danger with the shoulder from all the close encounters experienced with all those flaying about, having problems with the swim.

 

WARMING UP

 

 

All in all, my swim time was about what it had been in the past.

The bike was typical for me; start slow and build. A young man racked next to me in transition had followed my feet for the entire swim. Now he and I were on the road together, but he was pulling away. As I began to build my friend started coming back to me and I passed. I thought he was put away for good, having started too fast but on a hill later in the course, he passed. I yelled encouragement to him for his comeback.

A mile or two down the road he started coming back to me and as I started to pass, I asked him if he was going to let an old man like me pass him? Come on with it., son.   Less than 1/2 a mile and he passed me again and I encouraged him for it.

We were in transition together and both remarked about the fun we had had on the bike. I told him I was sorry, but I was almost sure he was a better runner, so the fun is all over between us. Sure enough, that is the way it went. My total running mileage for the year was only a little over twenty miles and I did not know what was in the legs after that bike leg. But I ran surprisingly well and never stopped. My overall time was not great but not all that bad either.

There were five of us in the 65-69 age group so when the third place was called and my name was not, I knew that I was out of the picture for a trophy - nice trophies too.  Number two in my age group was called and I clapped for him. Then, to my surprise, I heard my name announced as first place in my age group.

 

 

Almost in a daze, I walked through the crowd, shook hands, and picked up my trophy. In all of my 31 triathlons at that point, I have never finished first in my age group.  Now, coming back from surgery, wondering how able I was to even do this, I had finally claimed this prize. Maybe this time I was humble enough in this endeavor to be exalted.

 

 

 

 

After rotator cuff surgery only weeks before, praise God!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, What a Memory - Ironman Texas

  

 

 

When routine and predictability seem overcoming, stifling, and slow, I find my photos and revisit, and smile contentedly with the awareness that "I was there."  I  lined up with some of the best athletes in the world and took myself from can to can't in a beautiful struggle.  I am blessed.

IRONMAN TEXAS

A Day Unlike Any Other Day by Marvin Dittfurth

https://booklocker.com/books/12152.html

Other Good Moments at Burnett- Feels Like Coming Home

 

Burnet Tri Hard

September 20, 2009

Burnet, Texas

 

800 Meter Swim-16 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

Back to the beginning.  This is not the most organized event, but it has a laid-back feel to it that seems to override the lack of bells and whistles.  Besides, it had been my first and it always feels like coming home when I do this one.  That being said, the event usually has all kinds of glitches, which I have now learned to smile and say are “Burnet moments.” 

 

The swim buoys looked a long way off for an 800-meter swim.  Based on my times and the times of the swims of other competitors, the swim course was much more than 800 meters.  An old friend of mine helped get the safety monitors on the course get their kayaks out onto the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and my Pat post-event.

 

 

 

 

His Flag Was Still There - A Rainy Sprint

 

Rose City Triathlon

 

Sept 12, 2009

Tyler, Texas Lake Tyler 

650 Yard Swim-14.5 Mile Bike-5K Run

A light rain began when we pulled into the parking lot.  It was still dark at the Rose City Triathlon race site, and we were some of the first participants to arrive.  While I was getting set up, getting body marked, and all that, the rain increased incrementally.  It did not look good for the home team.  Daylight ebbed damp and gloomy upon the scene but spirits would not be dampened.  This was a triathlon, and the others and I were ready, rain or shine.

Finally, we participants huddled at the swim start on top of the lake dam.  On a pole stuck in the ground atop the dam was an American flag waving bravely in the breeze.  I talked to a participant about my age, a genuinely nice man wearing a chain with a cross on his bare chest.  It was cold in the rain and breeze but the good conversation with my new friend kept it warm. Then the national anthem was played, and we winced into the rain and put hands to hearts, and watched that waving flag.  The wind seemed to pick up during the anthem, and the flag fluttering loudly in the wind and rain.  Then a low hum could be heard, louder, louder still.  The low hum turned into audible words of song as we gathered ourselves to join in singing the anthem too.  A swell of pride rose in my heart, and a mist came into my eyes, unnoticed in the rain.  Then came the verse, “Oh say does that does that star-spangled banner yet wave------,” and the wind gusted in response, making the flag flap violently and defiantly against the wind.   As we cheered and clapped our allegiance, I thought that after this opening, the event might be anticlimactic.  I was wrong.  There was more to come. 

The swim went fine, and the water was not that rough at all.  It was pouring rain as we exited the water and ran perhaps a hundred yards to our bikes in the transition area.

 

My cross-carrying friend was already there, smiling at me, wishing

me well.  The rain was coming down hard as I left on my bike.

It was not too bad at first, squinting into the rain to see where I was going then came the short hills.  They were steeper than I anticipated, and my speed got out there more than I felt safe with on the wet roads.  As I squeezed the brakes to slow down somewhat, nothing happened.  Squeezing harder, still not much was happening. I was flying down that hill in the rain with limited vision and essentially without brakes.  I would have never thought I would be glad for a hill to climb so I could slow down.  The next hills were taken very cautiously, and I kept riding the brakes to get whatever film might have been on the pad that made them ineffective when wet.  Needles to say, this was not one of my best bike legs in an event.  But I was just glad to be back safely to transition.  The run was sort of out in the open in the blowing rain.   Our running shoes squished loudly on the wet pavement.  At a turn, I saw someone limping badly.  It was my friend with the cross around his neck.   Stopping, to walk with him, I noticed a large tear in his cycling shorts.  He had taken a bad spill on his bike in the rain.  He showed me his hip and was a large, deep abrasion.  It looked almost like you could see the white of his hip bone.  He was in pain, but he urged me to go on, but he was hobbling so I wasn’t sure he could go much farther.  Still, he urged me on, and I agreed but I said I would be back.

 

 Surging on to finish, I quickly found an official and told of my injured friend.

We left to run back up the course to find him.  He was not hard to spot with that bad limp, but he told us he wanted finish this race.  So, we watched as my friend dug down for those last few hundred yards to hobble painfully in the pouring rain, to finish the course.  There would be no accolades, no loud announcer calling his name, only surety of being the person God had called him to be in all circumstances and seasons.   What else is there?  He made me proud. I was the lone spectator cheering as he hobbled across the finish, where he was helped away into an ambulance which took him away.  I thought of that Star-Spangled Banner we had sung a short time ago.  He had finished and in doing so, he had confirmed to himself and to me that his “flag was still there.”