Thursday, April 3, 2008

Still in the Ring! Round Four Begins...

Sorry to be late on this posting. I know many of you are hoping to find good news on this posting. AND YOU'VE FOUND IT!

At Sabine's consultation yesterday with Dr Sheehan at the UW Cancer Clinic she heard some good news. The nasty little "light chains" that initially clogged up her kidneys have been reduced again for the second time. (For those like me who love numbers: the light chains started out with a population of 10,800, after the first chemotherapy with Velcade and Dexamethasone they were reduced to 1,500, and now after the second round of Velcade and Dex they went down to approx. 200!)

So, we start our fourth round of chemo next week with the same regimen of Velcade and Dex.

Sabine is feeling better and even walked BOTH of our hills! She is in good spirits and starting to boss me around more (a sure sign of getting better.)

We are still in a "wait and see" mode with the kidneys. A good focused prayer would be to ask that those nasty light chains depart from her kidneys and get them fully functioning again.

We both thank you for your prayers. I have said before that we can actually "feel" them and as we know about prayer it is something that works though we know not how. I am a big believer in prayer circles and thanks to those of you who have submitted Sabine's name to church groups. The blessed monk Thomas Merton once said that he believed constant prayer literally held the world together. I can see that it is holding Sabine together and I thank you from the deepest part of my heart.

Onward. Round four. Could be a knockout round!

(p.s. I couldn't help myself, I was trying to find a picture I have of Sabine in full riot gear and just had to post these photos when I couldn't find it!)