What a week!
On Monday, it was the heart biopsy; on Wednesday, it was a skeletal survey. And the good news is — the skeletal survey shows no sign of bone destruction so we can rule out aggressive multiple myeloma – hurrah! The heart biopsy is still officially in the lab — results for all of these tests should be available by the end of this week. At this point, we are working with the amyloid diagnosis but remain cautiously optimistic that it is in the very early stages.
Personally, I think that all the prayers are working!
Friday night George was feeling a bit off and our fab neighbor, Dot, took his blood pressure. It was on the high side so we decided a midnight jaunt to Boston Medical was in order! Boston is so pretty at night and traffic is so much lighter! Made my best time yet – clocking in at less than 30 minutes! Since George just had the biopsy on Monday and there’s something about the term “amyloid” that made the E/R team want to keep him overnight for observation. I kind of like looking at him too so I can understand their reasoning.
Just so you know, I did not cook on Friday night!
On Saturday morning, Drs. Young, Younger and Youngest visited and determined that George was a man of mystery! They poked and prodded but finally decided to release him late Saturday afternoon. Tom and I spent the afternoon with George and explored the whole hospital. Tom is quite fond of vending machines so that was our mission – to find all the vending machines in the hospital! Am thinking we did a good job since I am out of quarters and one dollar bills.
Thanks so much for all your best wishes, prayers and support.
radiate harmony 
My dad was also called “The Mystery Man” when the Drs here looked at him (we live in Arkansas). He had systemic AL Amyloidosis. They ruled out multiple myeloma, but there was something else going on in his system that was causing infections and complications along with with amyloid. Unlike your case, my dads heart was not affected by the amyloid and his sweet, loving, heart of gold was still going strong. He was put on the same aggressive chemo and then stem cell transplant plan of treatment, but never made it to the stem cell collection. My father had had Amyloidosis for so long because it was misdiagnosed so many times. It started out just as end stage renal failure and we were about to be put on the transplant list. But he just kept getting worse and worse. Finally landed in UAMS at the myeloma institute, which was the initial diagnosis. When the Drs at the Myeloma Institute looked at all his test results and cell slides/stains they knew it was not MM, but amyloidosis. We had the pleasure of working with Dr. Bart Barlogie, who is now in New York. Unfortunately right after his chemommy father had a GI rupture and was bleeding internally, which was the ultimate cause of his death, since the amyloid was in his vascular system the bleeding was more intense and quick. He went from doing great to taking his last breath as we all watched in less that 24 hours. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It was bittersweet because I was in the room with him the 5th time he coded and finally stopped responding, but was able to tell him I loved him and he nodded and gave a thumbs up before he went unconscious. It’s a horrible disease and I pray for everyone that has/had to go through it. It’s also comforting to hear stories like yours. Where the family gets through it and kicks this things butt. I just wanted to let you know that I understand all the pain and anxiety and everything else your family went through with this disease. It’s not an easy journey, but I’m so glad that it worked out for you and your family and George was able to kick this things butt.