My husband was diagnosed September 2006 with stage 3 mm. he passed away October 15, 2007. As sick as he was his attitude was always positive. He always talked like he had many tommorrows ahead. He was avery courageous man. i will begin with the thal/dex and the radiation. He not only got the nueropathy but the radiation made swallowing difficult. Thanksgiving 2006 he couldn't even eat. He remained on this potion untill he had his stem cell transplant in March 2007. He was pretty close to remmission at this point. He did extremly well with the transplant except it didn't work. He was worse in August 2007 then before transplant. He developed huge playsmacytoma's on both arms. I look at his pictures and see a big stong man reduced to skin and bones, He not only lost weight but at least 3 inches in height. We had another option that could buy him some time or kill him. By the time he went in the hospital October 1, 2007 he was so run down and tired. All he could do was sleep. He was unable to sleep in a bed because of the pain. I failed to mention the thursday before they tried to put a port in but failed and had to abort it because he bled out. He was to get a pic line on that Monday when he was admitted but they were to busy. Finally on Wednesday the doctors went to the administrator and it was put in. The chemo he was to get was quite radical and had numerous side effects. It was three different types and on top of all that the thal/dex too. Ironically when they started it he sparked up and within 2 days the playsma cyotoma's flattened. You would think this was a good sign. We were very optomistic. This was very short lived. The kidney's started to fail. They pumped him with fluids. He gained 42 pounds in 5 days. His legs were so swollen he could hardly walk. He then started having anxiety attacks, so they thought. He was moved to another floor and was now on oxegen. He was still having the breathing problems. Along with this he was getting transfussions and platletts. My daughter came to the hospital to stay with him so I could go home and get cleaned up. This was after beuing in the hospital about 10 days. He was getting a transfussion when I left about midnight. They were changing bags for more blood and he coded. She called and I flew back to the hospital. He survived this and 2 more times that night. Of course he was now on a ventilator. 24 hours later he was off the ventillator for 7 hours and then the breathing problem again. So now he was back on it again. They wanted to drain his right lung because they said he was drowning on the fluids. Kidneys were working now though. They said he would be off the ventilator soon. Not true they now had to drain the other lung put a central line in and a heart monitor. They wanted a better reading on his blood pressure. The doctor came out with a smile on his face. He said everything went well. AT some point the tilted his head back to try to get a better reading on his blood pressure and he aspirated on stomache gases but they said it was under control. Apparently not because later they recommended taking him off all meds because if he recovered he would never leave the hospital and would have to have a trach eventually. That is one thing I knew he never wanted.He alreadywore hearing aids and couldn't hear well with them. He couldn't continue the chemo which was to happen every month for 4 to 6 months. His blood pressure was 30/18 and he was still somewhat coherant 4 hours off meds. I couldn't pull the ventillator. The nurse from his cancer treatment center came in and she told me he wasn't takuing one breath on his own.She said they could reduce the oxyegen and see if he could breath on his own. He passed very quickly with the love of his whole family surrounding him. I held his hand, We also were married since we were teenagers.We almost made it to 41 years. I also wnated to mention that he did one round of velcade in August but could not continue because he counts got to low. They said his disease was very aggressive. The mm didn't get him though. His death certificate listed in this order septic shock respitory failure and pnuemonia. We all know without an immune system any one of these would do him in. They knew this before he died. Cancer is a horrible disease and we had a horrfic year but I thank God he gave us that year. I will always cherish and treasure our time together. I know it seems like we went through a lot but I do feel they did everything they knew to do for him. I feel in time they will come up with something better. Unfortunately it didn't happen for us. Never give up, Sometimes I feel a little guilty about the dicisions I had to make at the end but in my heart I know I did the right thing for him. God just gave us some bonus days after he coded. Had he been at home that would've been it. We got to say our goodbyes. Just be strong in your journey. I just had to tell my story in hopes that someone else can be helped by it. We made the decisions to continue the treatment. We could've said no more but we chose to keep trying. Even with the pain my husband was in I want to say he lived his life to the fullest almost to the very end. God bless
Linda and he was Mike