The Pine cone man

During myeloma relapse 1 recovery (2007) from myeloma treatment I had to devise ways to regain my fitness and strength.
About 3 blocks from home is a very large park with walkways, trees and seats. My initial goal was to walk to the park and return.
That was accomplished fairly quickly. Soon I was adding walking in the park extending the walk as fatigue reduced and I became fitter.
In the park are a large number of pine trees which shed pine cones good for home fire burning.
Ah ha I thought, there is another fitness idea.
My left humerus had just been rodded due to a plasmacytoma destroying the bone at mid shaft. The arm and shoulder needed strengthening. On my park walks I would now take an eco bag to fill with pine cones. I used the left arm to carry the bag flexing the arm along with other exercises as I walked along. Over time it all became stronger.
Then Myra dropped a bomb shell. She said, “We use electricity for heating. The pine cones will have to go.” After negotiations with her (I won) it was decided after drying out I would store the pine cones in rubbish sacks and place outside and cover with a rain proof cover ready to give to those who needed them over winter.
A bag full of dry pine cones on a cold, wet winter’s night is a welcome surprise.
I still continue collecting pine cones on my walks and have found some more parks with pine trees that I drive to. My two grandchildren have become expert pine tree finders.
Best time for collecting pine cones is after strong winds or a storm.

Myeloma relapse 1

My autologous stem cell transplant for myeloma in December 2001 took me into the plateau stage. I was free of bone pain, life had virtually returned to normal,
The plateau “golden years” continued until September 2006 when I suffered a pathological fracture of my left mid shaft humerus. It sneaked up on me, came from nowhere. At that time my test results showed no indication of myeloma, all was normal, I was feeling good.
In January 2007 I commenced maintenance treatment of Thalidomide, 50mg/day.
All remained normal until December 2007 when my IgG and paraprotein started to increase. Until then because of the normal test results I could not accept that myeloma had returned. Perhaps I was in denial. I wanted the plateau dream to continue.
Faced with the facts of these increased results my denial was over. It was time to face the truth; plateau 1 had come to an end, relapse 1 had commenced.
I developed a lytic lesion in the surgical neck of the left humerus. That was treated with radiation.
Peripheral neuropathy from Thalidomide was becoming an increasing problem.
A lytic lesion developed in the mid shaft right humerus and shoulder. That also was treated with radiation.
Bone pain was increasing, IgG and paraprotein was increasing, myeloma had well and truly returned.
It was decision time, 3 options were considered.
1. Increase Thalidomide with a corresponding increase in peripheral neuropathy.
2. Add or change to cyclophosphomide and dexamethasone.
3. A second ASCT using the remaining stem cells collected in 2001.
In New Zealand we have a free public health system. Velcade and Revlimid are not available from Pharmac the treatment managing agency so were not considered.
In August 2008 I was given autologous stem cell transplant 2 which put me into plateau 2.

Plateau stage: A stable stage of my disease following a good response to anti cancer treatment.