Can you say, "Hit By A Truck?"

On 15 July I started Zometa. Zometa is a bone strengthener. As I've explained previously (but will indubiously outline again here) Myeloma takes over the bone marrow and, when active, actually starts eating the bone itself, along with doing other really nasty things that you'll have to go back to a previous post to understand. BOTTOM LINE, WITH ME, - IT'S STILL ASYMPTOMATIC, OR NOT ACTIVE (that part put in for my wonderful, worrying mother).

Where the Docs can help control other issues brought on by the disease chemically, SHOULD something happen w/ my bones there's no real no fix. So the Zometa is used to strengthen my bones and to help avoid any issues that may occur. You'll all be happy to know that Zometa is also used for Osteoporosis (insert "you're getting old" joke here). Zometa is given intraveneously and I was warned that I will feel side effects in the first session, less so in the second and in the third I probably wouldn't notice. So the first thing they told me was expect to be feverish w/ flu like symptoms for the first 24-48 hours. They didn't tell me it would feel like I just got hit by a truck!


I was told to hydrate that night of so I plowed through 3 liters of H2O before bed. I woke up, felt fine, did my situps/pushups and went to work. By noon it hit me. My back and shoulders were killing me like I'd played rugby that weekend and had been stuck at second row! And yes, Pat, like my ususal out of shape performance, "too winded to run"-rugby. But I must have made a few tackles as my shoulders were killing me! So I got all the pain with none of the game - miserable.

As far as numbers are concerned, I'm continuing to be anemic where my RBC and HGB counts are lower. This is normal as the bone marrow creates the red blood cells and hemoglobin and I've got this rogue protein that's taking over my marrow. So, being anemic would cause certain issues: fatigue, problems w/ bleeding, etc. I've got none of these - well, correction, I'm at work by 8, getting home just before 7 and have a 5 and 2 year old. I am fatigued - but I don't believe I'm any more so than what you would expect in that situation! So, in short, I'm not feeling any of what they say I should be feeling - so that's good.

That's it for now - any questions? Post a comment (and the sushi is still foul, the worst is when you're slurping it and some of the melted ice drips down your chin and onto your dress shirt, "daddy, you smell stinky!"