One year on

Believe it or not it is coming up to a year since I went under the knife and was finally properly diagnosed with Myeloma. This means that I was due a 12 month check up at the Queen's Med to check on my metal work, I had to take my youngest with me which isn't ideal, but she went happily behind the safety screen while I had my x-ray and just took her shoes and socks off and dropped raisins all over the floor during the consultation, so I can't complain. The news is: it all looks fine; no screws have moved, the front of C7 has not changed (i.e. there are no more tumours and nothing to worry about there) and they are very happy with the progress on my left hand, which is now very close to being back to normal. For anyone who hasn't seen it before here is what my neck looks like now from the side:

There are two set of screws into the two vertebrae above C7 and two sets below, i.e. C7 is in the middle, you can just see a 'pointy' bit at the backs of vertebrae from C6 upwards which is missing from C7, that is the bit that was removed. The front of C7 looks a bit squashed compared to the rest - this is the damage done by the Myeloma and the reason why there were plans to remove it. But it seems to be holding up and there is some bone growth too, and definitely no further damage.

Went to see my haematology consultant last week and there we are now starting to plan the next transplant, as such I am now part of the pre-transplant posse and not the post-transplant losers anymore. The results of the bone marrow biospy I had were not fully in, he only had information from the less accurate aspirates which have the liquid bone marrow on, but these show the presence of NO excess Myeloma, which is an excellent result. The more precise results may show that some Myeloma is there but it will be at worst very low. This, he acknowledged, is the reason for going for the next transplant, strike while the iron is hot so to speak. Serum free light chain levels had risen again the last available set of results, but by very little. I said it was disappointing to see them continually rising still but he said, and I quote: 'I think you are reading more into those than I am'. Which I guess means it is not something to be concerned about.

I had to shave last night, I actually NEEDED to shave. My facial hair has come back in odd patches and with the rather nice dark thick tache I have acquired, I have also started to sprout hair in the middle of my chin. This taken together makes me look like (according to my confidence inspiring wife) a 'magician'. Judge for yourself.

Although this has to be better than how I looked a few weeks ago:

Believe it or not, I was ID'd for a bottle of wine in Tesco's yesterday. After thanking the lady doing the interrogation she informed me that 'you really don't look 25'. I thought that was probably going a bit far and that she was taking the piss, but then I thought: no, it is possible that to a certain demographic of vertically challenged middle aged short sighted ladies I could pass for younger than 25, and this cheered me up. Maybe that's why she did it, perhaps I looked a little sad in Tesco's on a Saturday night with loads of reduced price salad and a bottle of half price vino.