Randy Lenz

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We are not sure when this all started, but let's go back to when Randy's journey started to get bumpier.  This story is being written from Sheila's point-of-view.  On November 15, 2017, dad had an appointment with his heart doctor, Dr. Clarke, at Sanford Cardiovascular Institute.  He scheduled this appointment due to having back pain.  In the past this back pain has indicated heart problems.  Dr. Clarke scheduled a Nuclear Stress Test on November 20, 2017.  This test came back with some possible problem areas, an angiogram was scheduled for December 5, 2017 at Sanford.  This angiogram showed nothing alarming.  There were a few "finger" arteries that had some blockage, but nothing that the doctor could stent due to their small size.  On December 7, 2017, we were able to get an appointment with Dr. Crabtree, dad's primary care physician at Sanford in Luverne.  Dr. Crabtree ordered blood tests and a CT scan of dad’s abdomen.  The CT scan was scheduled for Friday, December 8, 2017.  Before his CT scan, dad received a call back from Dr. Crabtree’s office that his blood work appeared to be normal, but they were going to order some additional testing on the blood.  Dad’s CT scan came back as normal.




On December 13, dad received a call from Dr. Crabtree’s office indicating that the bloodwork showed that he had an increased level of proteins.  They were making a referral to Dr. Bleeker, hematologist.  Dad had an appointment with Dr. Bleeker on Friday, December 15.  He explained that he did in fact have an increase in protein levels which can indicate a potential diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma, but he would not be able to make a confirmed diagnosis without having a bone marrow biopsy.  The bone marrow biopsy was scheduled for December 20, 2017.  This test left dad feeling very scared as he had a bone marrow biopsy in the early 80’s when he was fighting Hodgkin’s disease (which was cured).  This bone marrow biopsy was much more tolerable for dad.  The pathologist explained that it would take approximately a week to week-and-a-half to get the results.




On December 27, dad received the call that we were all dreading….he did in fact have cancer AGAIN….and here we go.  Please tune in to the journal part of this site for additional updates.  I will try to update this site at a minimum of once a week, but if there is additional happenings I will update more frequently...