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Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Berenson Day by Numbers

2.47 latest creatinine
3 years on darzalex/pom
8.5 years since diagnosis
3 hours drive time to Berenson's office
60 total miles round trip distance to Berenson's office
25,000 shares of unknown company loudly sold today by fellow patient on his cell in Berenson's lobby
$81.70 sales price of said shares

1 library book I was reading as said stock sale took place
7 number of times I grumbled under my breath No calls in the lobby, go outside!
81 the number Carl Eller wore as a famed member of Vikings Purple People Eater defense in 60s and 70s
1 Hall of Fame induction for Carl Eller
2016 Year Carl Eller was diagnosed with myeloma
1 Coincidence; to get to Berenson's office from my house, I get onto the 405 north.  I take the 405 to Sunset Blvd, head east several miles and then find a parking spot somewhere near Sunset and Doheny.  I went by myself today and listened to my custom Spotify playlist titled 2019, a non-controversial  playlist title obviously created by a Libra. It's a mix of alternative songs that are calming and have some meaning to me.  Today on the 405 approaching the La Tijera overpass, the song Psalm by Roxy Music came on. As I was about to go under the overpass, a sign on the fence up above read Repent, Believe in Jesus. Right as I drove under the sign, not before and not after, Brian Ferry of Roxy Music sang the lyric Believe in Me.  Followed ten seconds later with the lyric Believe in Jesus.  Ooohhhh, creepy and chilling. What does it mean?

Right before Psalm came on, I was thinking of questions for Berenson. I already knew my lab results and they look good. I decided I wanted to ask him what would happen if I stopped taking all my meds. How long until the myeloma re-emerged?  I'm not planning on stopping my current regimen, although I'd love to cut out the steroids. Bruising, bleeding, and poor vision are steroid side effects that are absolutely pissing the heck out me. But I am a bit curious about how long until myeloma strengthened if I was drug free for a while. I knew his answer would be : 1) we don't know and 2) why would you do that, you tolerate this treatment superbly.  So I didn't ask.



2 comments:

  1. Don't stop.
    Don't want to know the answer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, our lives in numbers. I've done numbers posts too. Crazy to think about our life in numbers. Have you ever counted the number of total treatments, or total number of pills you've done. LOL, we'll have to hire a statistician to do that. I tried one time and gave up, there was so much data to count. Maybe this project on a Dex day LOL. So glad your current regimen is working so well for you! Julie :))

    ReplyDelete

Berenson Oncology Success Rate

 Some reading about my myeloma specialist's success rate. A press release and an article from Targeted Oncology.