{"id":126,"date":"2010-04-21T07:50:20","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T12:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/?p=126"},"modified":"2010-04-21T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2010-04-21T19:38:44","slug":"chemo-maintenence-end-of-cycle-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/?p=126","title":{"rendered":"Chemo maintenence – end of cycle 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 14th<\/sup> marked the end of my 39th cycle of post-transplant chemotherapy. As usual I donated several vials of blood and a gallon jug of urine (24 hour urine collection) to the UofM Cancer Clinic, then met with Dr. Jakubowiak and his new MD fellow Dr. McDonald to assess my progress. The good news – the cancer remains in \u201ccomplete remission.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Adhesive Capsulitis (shoulder pain – aka \u201cfrozen shoulder\u201d) is now at a steady state. If I visit the gym and exercise regularly the shoulders stay lose and the pain is minimal. If I avoid the gym they hurt. I know how to manage this problem.<\/p>\n

My transition from private medical insurance to Medicare seems to have gone without a hitch. There have been no big coverage or co-pay surprises. Yet. Amazing\u2026<\/p>\n

SOME EDUCATION ABOUT MEASURING CANCER REMISSION<\/p>\n

Each clinic visit includes blood work and submission of a 24 hour urine sample. From those the staff measure immune system function and activity of the Myeloma. The important immune system indicators are the blood\u2019s ANC (neutrifil) and WBC (white blood cell) counts. The cancer indicator measured in the urine is called a Bence Jones test {news to me! google Bence Jones – interesting material}. Fortunately my Bence Jones results are listed as \u201ctrace amounts, too little to quantify.\u201d As long as that number stays low, things are good; when that number climbs\u2026 well, things will not be so good.<\/p>\n

IMMUNE SYSTEM PROBLEMS<\/p>\n

Speaking of ANC and WBC indicators… my immune system is in lousy shape. I\u2019ve suffered a few really bad colds since my last blog report, and the intervening lab work has shown that my counts are lower than they\u2019ve ever been. Despite poking myself with prescribed Neupogen injections, my immune system has not responded well.<\/p>\n

NEWS FROM MY CLINIC VISIT<\/p>\n

The immune system issues mentioned in the previous paragraph are not unexpected \u2013 in fact they are the known side effect of the Revlimind chemotherapy drug that I have been taking for three years. Dr. J decided to give me a month\u2019s \u201cvacation\u201d from Revlimid, and thereafter to change my dosage and regimen. So in the next 30 days we hope that my body will have a chance to resume normal operation, after which my dosage will change from a daily 10mg pill taken for 2 out of 3 weeks, to a daily 5mg pill taken for 3 out of every 4 weeks.<\/p>\n

SIDE EFFECTS<\/p>\n

Neuropathy \u2013 Nothing new. Although hardly noticeable most days, I am anxious to see if my symptoms change when I don\u2019t receive Revlimid for 30 days.<\/p>\n

Neutropenia \u2013 My immune system blood counts have trended lower and become less predictable, per previous paragraphs about my month\u2019s vacation from Revlimid. Stay tuned\u2026<\/p>\n

NEXT STEPS<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll have lab work and resume the Revlimid on May 10th<\/sup>. Very interested to see what changes.<\/p>\n

In the mean time, knowing the germ fighting capability of my immune system is at all-time lows, I must be ever-diligent about handwashing and avoiding people with germs. Purell is my constant friend.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the latest news from Hamburg.<\/p>\n

-larry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 14th marked the end of my 39th cycle of post-transplant chemotherapy. As usual I donated several vials of blood and a gallon jug of urine (24 hour urine collection) to the UofM Cancer Clinic, then met with Dr. Jakubowiak and his new MD fellow Dr. McDonald to assess my progress. The good news – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}