Hello Everyone - 

We have been meaning to post as we have been reflecting a lot coming into September and the one year mark for diagnosis (September 16th).  It has been a year, not just for us but for everyone and we feel so thankful and lucky to have a community of such amazing, giving people supporting and cheering us on.  

Andy is doing well.  He is still off work and will reassess in December/January to determine if he can go back for the second half of the year.  He started his chemo maintenance (Revlimid pills daily) in August after joining a study.  He ended up in the control group so his course is what he would have had in or out of the study.  He will remain on Revlimid until there is another chemo therapy that would be better.  We have been told that there are several new therapies coming through drug trials that would potentially work well for MM patients.  The upside to the maintenance chemo is that it is should keep the MM cells at bay for a period of time (long time we hope).  The downside is that there will be periods where his new bone marrow can't keep up with the chemo over the next year or so, his immunity will dip and he will be in quarantine until it comes back up.  The current major downside is that his body doesn't seem to like the Revlimid (lots of itchy skin rashes which is not uncommon). He has had to stop the chemo now for a second time and they are thinking the next step is to cut the dose in half to see if he can build up some sort of tolerance. We will get next steps on Friday so wait and see.  Overall, his numbers looks great (doctors are very pleased) and this is just a bit of an itchy blip on the road to maintenance.

Another milestone this week - Andy and I hit our 30 year anniversary on Tuesday!  It just doesn't seem that long ago that we stood on Chapel Rock on Sperry, got married and had a great party afterwards - So many great memories of that day. Andy has also been keeping busy refinishing furniture (a new endeavor for him) as well as cooking most meals (also new endeavor for him). 

We continue to focus on the good things in our world, enjoying our empty nest (yes, we miss our kids but also we are all very happy we all have our own places) and trying to declutter (it's the simple things). Not sure when we will post next, rest assured that if we haven't posted, it is because all is well with us.  

With love and gratitude
Kim and Andy