Saturday, October 31, 2009

This is only a test

Trying to see if I can upload text and photo from the iPhone (yes, they have an app for that!)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First Day of Treatment

Today was the first day of treatment - I'll write in more detail later, for now, realize that my posting to my blog at 0130 doesn't mean the Dex has really kicked in - contrary - we are hosting a Halloween party tomorrow night so I have been up making 3 trays of Risotto (and will have to cook the meat tomorrow). I don't feel any different and feel like I can crash w/o problem.

But I'll post more detail about today's fun events later! Just wanted a place holder for this first day.

Monday, October 19, 2009

...3 months later...

So in a book, or in a film, there's that moment in time when the writer/director realizes that if they really included that uneccessary time period between plot points it would take away from the overall effect of the movie. It would be boring, uneventful, useless patter signifying nothing (ok - went off on a bit of a Shakespeare tangent there). The events during that time period were of no consequence to the overall, bigger picture. Hence, I was busy (as h*ll), it was summer (we played) and the kids are growing (to be a pain in the...)

...3 MONTHS LATER...

There truly hasn't been anything of consequence in the recent months. I've been taking the sushi, acting as a pin cushion and donating my circulatory fluids to tests and more tests. The sushi surprize is having no effect on me - it's not making me sick and it's not making me better. My numbers have been floating up and down but unfortunately, the numbers of biggest consequence have not been going in the right direction.

The type of Myeloma that I have is IGA Lambda. My IGA numbers, which should be 70-400, are averaging in the high 3,000's. My Lambda numbers which should be 6.1-29.7 are averaging in the 350 range. I hit the IGA 4,000 mark last visit and we decided to watch closely on this visit. Even though I hit 3,800 my total protein count (act: 11.9, range: 6.9-8.9) and calcium counts were both high so we are moving forward with the RVD regimen and getting off the sushi.

Su-Su-Sushi, Goodbye.... This evening's return did not find me loaded up with 112 caplets of foul smelling, regurgitated ocean life. I will be receiving a prescription of Revlamid and will begin my dosing in approximately 3 weeks. The dosing will be 2 weeks on, 1 week off, which will comprise one cycle. The Revlamid is taken orally for 14 days on, 7 days off. The Velcade and Dexomethazone is taken every three days (2x per week). The Velcade is taken via an IV (30 min in a chair) and the Dex can be done either via IV or orally. This is done for one week on, two weeks off .

This continues for 4-6 cycles or till my numbers reach a point where we can begin harvesting. The optimum result is the therapy causes my numbers to reduce down to normal, and, if lucky, potentially negate the need for a transplant (at this time). Otherwise, we will continue till my numbers reduce as much as they can (and reach some type of plateau.) At that point we'll harvest and look at doing the transplant.

While this may seem to be more serious in nature, I guess, it really is and has a proven track record at reducing the aspects of my disease that are most troublesome. Revlamid and Velcade are both attacking the cancer and problem antibodies. Rev is a derivative of Thalidomide (see previous posts for more detail). The Dex is there as a steroid to help boost energy, etc. I'm also being given something else (the name escapes me) to prevent shingles. The biggest issue I need to worry about is neuropathy (tingling/loss of feeling in toes/fingers).

So nothing more to report at this point. I'll do my best to keep the time between plot points more interesting!