January 8, 2008

There has been an unexpected turn. Yesterday, we though we were looking at some kind of kidney disease/injury caused by Mom taking ibuprofen when she had a cough.

Further tests have revealed that her kidney failure was not from that and that she does not have what we all were thinking she had -- something called interstitial nephritis.

As a result of the kidney biopsy (which ruled out disease or injury there) and further more technical blood work, it appears that what is causing the kidney failure (and the high blood pressure) is something outside of the kidneys. What appears to be happening is that some cells called "b cells" have migrated to the kidneys and plugged them up leaving only a 10% function of them.

These "b cells" are in fact cancer cells and they are coming from either the bone marrow or some other site. So, today, Mom will be getting a CT body scan and fairly soon a blood marrow biopsy.

I know this sounds rough (and it is) but I am confident that there are a number of treatments that can attack this blood cancer and give Mom a full life. We all need to be strong for her and keep her spirits up -- if you can't talk to her on the phone w/o crying, send her a note until you can. Prayer and positive thinking with strong family support is the thing that beats cancer.

I don't know much else as of this morning. We had a good cry yesterday afternoon and we are now prepared to help craft a medical plan and start a best therapy for her as soon as possible.

Now this is a preliminary thinking -- NOT a final diagnosis. If you want to check out what I think it is look up "multiple myeloma" (see www.webmd.com and/or www.mayoclinic.com )

Mom and I send our love (and I will keep you informed as to what goes on today with the med team)


January 8, 2008 (later)

No info so far, when we do I will send out a report to family. she did a body x-ray this morning... still waiting to hear from hematology... she is in good spirits -- reframing things -- sounding positive outside and then recording a 167/103 BP to show what's going on inside.

We all had a good cry yesterday and I told Buddy last night and had another cry.... this will work out -- no things may never be as they were but they can be different and even be better!