Damn.

Just got back from the Oncologist's.

No Chemo (Velcade) today.

He's conferring with the Nephrologist.

And I'm sitting here waiting for him to call.

The diuretics are not getting the water off.  I'm up two pounds since I saw the Kidney doc last week.  I should have been down 5 or more.

The Neprologist  wants to put me in the hospital for a couple of days to get the water out using massive doses of diuretics where they can monitor me.

The Oncologist says that the water problem may be signalling that my light kappa chain to light lambda chain ratio may be going bad.

They drew blood today and the results of this blood work should be back by the end of this week.

If that's the case, that the ratio is bad, it means that the maintenance chemo is not working any more.

So it may be time for a stem cell transplant.  He said probably within the next month.

I had hoped it would last longer.  I thought I would be on maintenance for years.

I have my fall planned out.  Several camping and hunting trips with my son, going to see my Army buds on my way to and from the APS SE meetup, spending practically all of November deer hunting with friends and the remainder of the month with my parents.

I wanted to make it through to at least December before Dialysis.  Looks like that won't happen.

I was prepared for my kidneys to fail. Dialysis would be something that I would simply "add" to my life.

It would become another daily chore, something to hook-up to before I went to sleep each night, and something to "empty" in the morning.

Something that would buy me time.

I wanted to make longer before the stem cell.

I wanted years, not months.  I wanted time.

Time to be with my son.

I need time. 

Damn.