The Fourth and Hopefully Last Cycle …
Firstly, let us start by wishing you all a very Happy New Year! 2008 was not one of our better years for obvious reasons but we are hopeful that 2009 will be a fulfilling and rewarding year for us.
Alpesh started his fourth cycle on Sunday – time flies … but we certainly weren’t having fun!
We met with Dr Z on Tuesday Dec 30th. He continues to be positive about Alpesh’s progress and said that the response so far has been better than he had hoped for. He has ordered the MRI and skeletal scan for week of January 12th which will be Alpesh’s rest week during the fourth cycle. We will compare these results from those in early October to determine how well Alpesh’s bones, plasmacytomas and lesions have responded to the four cycles. He also suggested stopping the monthly Zometa infusion for now until we know the current state of Alpesh’s bones – perhaps he won’t need it as often now?
The IV infusion of Velcade went very smoothly that day. Cindy the nurse is a pro in getting his veins to cooperate so we are really grateful to her for making the experience quick and efficient. Blood results were surprisingly good – the week off must have helped since Alpesh’s platelets had doubled since the last IV infusion! Platelet count is 310 currently with WBC at 5.0 and RBC down to 4.65. Great numbers for a chemo patient.
We expect to get the results from Cycle 3 next week so we will share them as soon as possible.
[by Sima]
alexfl