Thread: Our Story
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Old Sun Nov 6, 2016, 12:01 PM
Stevie-Ray Stevie-Ray is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Michigan's Sunrise Side
Posts: 2
Our Story

I am a 60 year old man, married to the love of my life, a 63 year old girl from Pennsylvania. We met in 1972 and married in 1975. Had a wonderful marriage in a time when divorces were getting rather common, and in 1980, disaster struck for our first big test. The wife was pregnant with our first, miscarried, and went directly into rheumatoid arthritis. Not just RA, but the worst case of it her doctor had ever seen. Within 5 years she was already undergoing her first replacement surgeries, MCPAs both, a year apart. She has since had both THAs, both TKAs, and Hoffmann procedures done on one foot twice. She has also suffered 2 broken femurs and a broken tibia and fibula. We were never able to have any kids, since her 5 miscarriages, and tried to get our living in with vacations and such whenever we got a window of semi-healthy opportunity. In-between those times, I was pretty much taking care of her. This past April, she complained about being short of breath when walking even in the house. Long story short, I had her checked out, her hemoglobin was 6.2, her platelets were 15K, indicating anemia and thrombocytopenia. Transfusions of both were in order, along with doctor visits to find the cause. Bone marrow biopsy was ordered-she never made it. Tripped over the cat in the house and broke her second femur. Hospital stay for nearly 2 months, something I never care to repeat, as we need to go to one over a hundred miles away. She finally got her biopsy while in her third hospital, (we were in 4) they diagnosed her with high grade MDS. (blast cells 17%) She was told she had 4-16 months. After final hospital, UofM, we came back home to see about getting her treatment at the local cancer center. Her oncologist recommended Vidaza and she has had only one cycle, and had to have the second one put off, mostly because of suspecting her going into AML. Second biopsy, according to pathologist shows 10% blasts, so Vidaza will continue at a reduced rate tomorrow, and of course supporting fluids, which are getting far closer together. I fear she won't make it, however, as her RA makes her very weak. And the night fevers are rampant not only with RA flare-ups, but just a little reading here will tell you also with MDS and Vidaza, so what to do there, other than Tylenol? I'm losing my love, my best friend, my entire reason for living, and I'm about numb right now. Seems what I've been doing for the last 36 years is all I know, and I'm going to be completely and utterly lost when she's gone. I'm watching her slip away daily and feel there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I've never felt so helpless in my life.
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