Psalm 23:6 "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Dear Family and Friends,

Goodness and mercy shall follow me and 12 bags of chemo hanging from a pole. I have never had so many bags of medicine being pumped into my system. Whenever I walked anywhere, I had all these tubes following me, attached to the pole. For four days, these were with me, 24 hours a day, but now I'm down to one. We are now waiting for the side effects of all this chemo to become part of the picture (dropping blood counts, lower immunity, more neurophathy, hair falling out). "Count it all joy." This treatment should cool off the myeloma hot spots so that they can remove the stem cells to be cleaned and put back into my system.

Medical Update:

1) I've been in UCSF since Monday, January 24, 2011, and have had wonderful care from the doctors and nurses. At first they thought I had a virus so everyone who came to my room had to wear a mask and I wasn't allowed out of my room. After four days, tests proved that it wasn't a virus after all so the masks were taken away.

2) They planned to do an MRI of my right femur and humouros before they started the chemo because that's where most of the myeloma hot spots were, but the MRI people were so busy on Monday when I came in that they only had time to do the right femur. So tomorrow, I will have the MRI of the right humouros where the hottest myeloma spot is located. The doctor asked me if I had any pain in that arm and I said "No, it feels fine." That is one of the remarkable things about my myeloma - I do not have bone pain. Many people with myeloma have bone pain wherever they have myeloma but God has spared me that. Praise His wonderful name. Even my right clavicle (which I broke in July 2010) does not hurt unless I carry too much weight in my right hand. I just shift the weight to my left and the pain goes away.

3) After this type of chemo, some people do not lose their hair until they go home, after the stem cells have been extracted. I think it has something to do with how quickly the chemo pushes its side effects. My sister was commenting the other day how "vain" we are about our hair and how it looks. I guess now I'll have to be vain about what style and color of head covering I'll be wearing. What silly creatures we are.

4) With more chemo, comes more neuophathy. The doctors are trying a medication called gabapentin to help control this neurophathy. I'm trying to keep this medication at a low dose since it has some yucky side effects. However, it does reduce the pain in my feet so that I can sleep. The nurses also put a metal bar over my feet so that the sheets and blankets are draped over my feet and do not touch them.

Thank you again for the many prayers that are being lifted up on my behalf. God hears every prayer and responds out of a heart full of pure Love. Everything He does is good and He works everything together to conform us to the image of His Son.

Please pray that God will:

a) Receive all the praise for how He is working through my friend myeloma.
b) Bless all the doctors and nurses who are caring for me and give them wisdom.
c) Make the side effects do what He tells them - He is in control of all things.
d) Use me to point people to Christ.
e) Fill me with His Holy Spirit so that His name will be glorified in my life.
f) Give everyone who reads this blog their personal, very next step in trusting Him fully and followig Him more closely.

I am filled with love and peace this morning and am so grateful to belong to God's wonderful family. Blessings on all your words and actions today.

Looking at Him, face to face,

Jane