A "Booster Shot" of Chemotherapy

Last week's extensive testing revealed good news and bad news. The good news is that I am a 51 year-old with the body of a 40 year-old. The bad news is, that 40 year-old body has myeloma that is beginning to make a comeback. My last Velcade treatment was January 9, and the little beast is taking advantage of that lull to regroup and reassert itself. It is not advisable to enter the stem cell stimulation and collection phase with resurgent myeloma, so the solution is a "booster shot" of chemotherapy. On Friday, I will be treated with a single dose of Cytoxan, which will knock back the myeloma sufficiently to allow stem cell stimulation to begin the very next day. The really bad news is that, as the name suggests, Cytoxan is toxic, or at least more so than Velcade. This means that the process of nausea, hair loss, and listlessness will begin a good week earlier than originally planned. Ah, well, I always was precocious! I did have one small compensation earlier today. While walking through the skyway to Mayo, I held a door open for Florence and a middle-aged woman who was walking just behind us. Florence commented on my politeness, and I rejoined, "People often mistake me for...." planning to finish up that sentence by saying "...a gentleman." Before I could finish, however, the woman piped up: "....George Clooney!" She made me a friend for life! Florence, however, teases me by saying that the woman really said, "Mickey Rooney!" Be that as it may, I'm feeling, as Austin Powers would say, "Dead Sexy" right now....which is a whole lot better than feeling just plain dead, which I did a lot in October.