My husband, Dave, was diagnosed with StageIIIb Bone Marrow Cancer, Multiple Myeloma, in 2/01. We were told he would likely survive another year to three years. After an autologous stem cell transplant, he relapsed in 2003 and was treated with a number of chemotherapy regimens. Due to Dave's rapidly escalating illness in 2005, we closed the business in October of 2005 for a few months, as I needed to devote time to my husband's care after an allogeneic stem cell transplant in 11/05. I saw the need to reduce my work load. To keep my staff paid and all of us eating, I sold some of our favorite breeding pairs. This has been a very difficult time for all of us at Aves International, but we have been reorganizing the business a bit. My husband has been home from the hospital, after a bone marrow transplant, since mid December '05 and continues to fight Multiple Myeloma.

update 6/26/08 Two weeks ago our UCLA hemotologist told us that Dave cannot tolerate any more chemotherapy. We have decided to try an experimental drug that will soon be
in clinical trials for Myeloma as well as many other types of cancers. The drug is very expensive and our insurance will not pay for it. We are trying to raise funds now as we cannot wait for a clinical trial. This drug looks extremely promising and I am excited about getting it for Dave.
very technical explanation of how the drug, cyclopamine, performs against Myeloma cell lines
Dave is now blood transfusion dependent but his liver values are better. He returned home on 5/18/08 after ten days being hospitalized for a number of health issues. He had endoscopic bile duct surgery 5/15, but no gallstone was found. and is very weak and unwell. Dave's latest lab report is showing that his cancer markers are very high now and we are still considering our options. Thank-you to everyone for your kind thoughts and consideration at this time!

He began chemotherapy again in 11/07 after no treatment for nearly four months, due to recovery from severe bilateral fungal pneumonia known as PCP (Pneumocystis jirovecci). Dave returned home on 9/5/07 after 15 days in the h0spital. His doctors were not optimistic that Dave would recover, but he fought hard and recovered quickly once the right medication was administered. We are so grateful to the many doctors, nurses, and other medical technicians that have helped Dave in the past several years!
We continue to be positive and to find the humor in every day!