New Treatment Schedule - Take Two!

Mark and Dianna met with Zangari's coordinator today and went over their new schedule.

They will meet with Dr. Zangari on March 5th. If everything looks good, Mark will start the high-dose chemo IV on Friday, March 6th. Pill form chemo will be on the 7th and 8th, and high-dose again on the 9th. The transplant is scheduled to take place on the 10th. (Exactly one month behind on where they were hoping to be).

Mark and Dianna would like both Kim and Kevin to know that they are in their prayers. Kevin's transplant was last week and unfortunately he is now in the hospital dealing with a staph infection. Kim's transplant was on Tuesday and he went into A-Fib and had to spend the night in the hospital. An A-Fib is where the upper part of the heart beats faster than the rest of the heart. Thankfully they are both doing better today.

Many things can happen during the stem cell transplant. Staph infections will almost always occur. The heart problem is rare but can obviously happen as well.

As always, your thoughts and prayers during the next few weeks will be much appreciated.

Good News!

Mark and Dianna met with the gastrointestinal surgeon today. The surgeon did see benign bubbles on the wall under Mark's diaphram. There are several different reasons for why the bubbles are there but the surgeon is positive that it's NOT because of a perforation. He got the opinion of two other doctors as well and they all concurred. The doctors said there is no reason to wait any longer to begin the high-dose chemo and stem cell transplant.

They will call Dr. Zangari's office tomorrow to see how soon before they can begin. Mark is more than anxious to get started and was hoping he could be finished before Easter weekend. Unfortunately due to the 2-3 week delay, that's not going to happen. Better safe than sorry though!

Mark and Dianna would like to thank everyone for being so supportive. It means more to them than you can imagine.

More Waiting

Unfortunately the news from Dr. Zangari today wasn't the best. Apparently the free air in Mark's abdomen has increased so they will be holding off on the transplant for now. Mark is scheduled to meet with a gastrointestinal surgeon on Tuesday, February 24th, to find out where the free air is coming from. If they were to go ahead with the transplant and the high-dose chemo leaked into his abdomen, it could be fatal.

Update

Mark went in for another CT scan yesterday and everything with that went okay. They ended up giving Mark another IV though which didn't make his day. Mark and Dianna are scheduled to meet with Dr. Zangari today so we'll have more info on how things will proceed later.

Congratulations to Kevin and Jackie. Kevin just had his transplant yesterday and everything went well for him.

Here's a picture of Mark with baby Carlos:

Mr. Clean's Self Portrait

Introducing ...

Carlos Raul Magno
8 lbs. 13 oz.
Born February 16, 2009 at 4:36 pm

Mom and baby are both doing great. Congratulations!!

More for the Team

Well Mark is definitely not alone when it comes to being bald. We have added four little recruits in the last few days.

Mark is enjoying his time at home but is chomping at the bit to get out some. Never fear though, Dianna practically has him handcuffed to his lazy boy. He's feeling great though and hopefully that means his perforated bowel is healing itself.

Mark is still scheduled for another CT scan on the 17th and will meet with Dr. Zangari on the 19th.

In other news, Dianna went back to work for now so she can save some of her time off to use later, and Britt is scheduled to be induced on the 16th.

New Schedule for Treatment

After packing the car for their move to SLC for the next several weeks, Mark and Dianna met with Dr. Zangari this afternoon.

The doctor decided it would be best to wait for 10-14 days before starting the next treatment phase. The surgeon thought it would be okay to go ahead with the treatment plan but Dr. Zangari decided to err on the side of caution and see if Mark's perforated bowel will heal itself over the next several days before starting chemo again.

As long as Mark is showing no issues from the perforation, the plan will be to do another CT scan on February 17th, meet with Dr. Zangari a few days after that, and then continue on with the chemo and stem cell transplant.

In other BIG news, the results of the latest bone marrow biopsy showed that the percentage of Myeloma in Mark's plasma cells has gone from 75-80% prior to the first round of chemo to 5-10%!!! Zangari is pleased with Mark's progress so far.

So for now, Mark and Dianna will be at home awaiting the arrival of their new grandbaby.

Changes to Treatment Schedule

Mark and Dianna received a call from their coordinator this morning. The appointment with Dr. Zangari for today is still on but he wants to put a hold on everything else for now (chemo, stem cell transplant) due to the perforated bowel.

More later after they meet with the doctor.

Another Day of Testing

Everything went well with the testing today, and thankfully, it took much less than 14 hours! Mark did some lab work, had another echocardiogram and another bone marrow biopsy. The biopsy is never fun for Mark and his anticipation of it makes the whole process so much worse.

Mark and Dianna were again told that unless any symptoms start showing up, they should not spend any time worrying about the perforated bowel. Dr. Zangari is aware of this problem and will discuss it with them on Thursday. Apparently the leak is in the upper part of the large intestine.

Mark is very tired from the biopsy but is doing well otherwise.

A Bit of Bad News

Mark and Dianna received a call from the PA. The CT scan showed leaking dye so unfortunately Mark does have a rupture somewhere. As long as he does not have a fever or tenderness, they were told to wait until Thursday for Dr. Zangari to make the call on how to proceed.