Sibs,<\/p>\n
Monday was the end of Chemotherapy Cycle 4 and 12 total weeks of chemotherapy. As usual, Irene and I met with the Myeloma physician and the research assistant to review my progress and discuss future treatment, after which I began Cycle 5 with the regular experimental Velcade chemo infusion, a supplemental Neupogen injection for white cell count improvement, and my monthly pneumonia-fighting inhalation therapy treatment of Pentamidine.<\/p>\n
In general, my treatment continues to go well and the researchers report my response as being excellent.<\/p>\n
LAB WORK, BLOOD COUNTS<\/p>\n
On Tuesday my white cell counts and ANC levels had declined from Friday\u2019s numbers – but were still within normal limits. Dr. J\u2019s standing orders are for a Neupogen boost when the trend indicates that I could be at risk for infections, bugs and germs, and thus the Neupogen injection.<\/p>\n
SIDE EFFECTS<\/p>\n
After 12 weeks of chemo, some side effects that initially were minor annoyances have become more noticeable and more difficult to ignore. The newest arrival is something described in the chemo drug literature as \u201cnumbness and tingling in the extremities”, which could better be described as \u201cpain in the contact area of the heels and balls of the feet when walking, and on fingers and the palms of the hands when touching items (keyboards) and gripping objects.\u201d This pain is not excruciating, debilitating, or even strong \u2013 I have required no pain medication for any of my treatment thus far \u2013 just enough to be a reminder while performing everyday activities (although walking a long distance would probably become very uncomfortable). Dr. J has said that the pain level will increase with each subsequent chemo cycle and that I should not be timid about requesting pain medication should I feel it is necessary.<\/p>\n
You may recall that in my last Chemo Update I talked about pain in my right hip\/pelvis, and that an x-ray and MRI were ordered to assist in isolating the problem. The good news is that both tests came back negative – nothing\u2019s broken; no sign of Myeloma hot spots on the bone. That leaves two likely possibilities. The first is that this pain is a side effect of the Velcade (a duplicate symptom, hip pain, has been seen in one other patient). The other possibility is that the pain is being \u201ctelegraphed\u201d from another area of the body and that my brain only THINKS it\u2019s my hip that hurts. In my case, the Myeloma lesion on my spine at L3 (lower back) is affecting the nerve that serves my right hip, and perhaps that nerve is the culprit. More tests have been ordered\u2026<\/p>\n
BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT<\/p>\n
Thank you for submitting blood samples to test for a bone marrow\/stem cell donor match. At this writing, the first two tests are back (Laura and Mary) and neither of those were a match. The Myeloma assistant warned that this is not \u201cofficial\u201d – which I interpreted as more of a political issue (“Wait until the Bone Marrow Transplant Coordinator tells you officially\u201d (who is on vacation this week\u2026. thus no news from her); than a medical issue (they stare at the same on-line lab results that the BMT people will see).<\/p>\n
This is disappointing news, because these were my two strongest donor candidates: Laura who thought she could influence the results via positive thinking (“I just KNOW I\u2019ll be the best match for you and this is going to work out fine!”); and Mary who was certain that her intensive donor training diet of dark chocolates and red wine would bring success. \ud83d\ude09 David and Micki sent in their samples later, results will likely be back next week\u2026<\/p>\n
The first transplant date is still not firm, but it is likely to occur after Chemo Cycle 6 (mid September). Confirmation should arrive today (Friday, 7\/27).<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the latest news from Hamburg,<\/p>\n
-larry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sibs, Monday was the end of Chemotherapy Cycle 4 and 12 total weeks of chemotherapy. As usual, Irene and I met with the Myeloma physician and the research assistant to review my progress and discuss future treatment, after which I began Cycle 5 with the regular experimental Velcade chemo infusion, a supplemental Neupogen injection for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.larrygauthier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}