John's having a very good day, with a minimum of side effects from the drug cocktail that he now takes daily. I'm happy to report that his lung is back to normal and he was released after four days in the hospital. They will do further routine monitoring over the next few weeks, but it looks like the air leak is healed and we will be flying home soon. Lesson learned...one that most of us already know...stay away from Cedars Sinai, or any hospital, if you possibly can! Even routine procedures have risk, and human error is possible even with the most skilled medical team. (Exception to this rule: Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where human error is almost nil! Why? Because they are superhuman!) It's amazing to think that John was walking around with a collapsed lung for two weeks and didn't even know it...a testament to how strong a guy he is! This would have stopped most people in their tracks!
He began the chemo regimen on Thursday, which consists of three different drugs taken orally. The goal is to stabilize heart and lung function and reduce levels of Lamba light chains, also known as amyloids, in his bloodstream. The amyloids have been on an upward march and the hope is that we will see significant reduction over the next few months. We will return to Mayo on August 15 for reevaluation. At that time there will be a determination as to which treatment plan is optimum given John's condition in August: chemo-only or transplant. The key issue in that determination will be the overall strength of his heart; if they feel he is doing well on chemo and the amyloids are declining, John may opt out of the transplant process altogether.
So once again, we wait. Then we wait some more. It's all about maximizing results and minimizing risk...and waiting!
Hope everyone's having a great weekend and we'll write more very soon!
