Life's Journey with Multiple Myeloma

I know many of you have been waiting anxiously to hear back on the results.  We have been so busy the last few days trying to juggle normal life (work, school etc. with the appointments with the doctors) that it has been difficult to share this information any earlier with anyone.

Here’s a quick summary:

First the good news:

• The bone marrow biopsy indicated that there are 6% plasma cells in the marrow (down from 11%), however more importantly, there are no monoclonal cells in the sample taken indicating no trace of myeloma cells.  We need to remember that this was a sampling from one area of the bone marrow and hope that it’s true for all of the marrow.
• There appears to be no further damage/lesions to Alpesh’s bones etc.  However, the damage that has been done is unfortunately significant but with time and the right medication, he might be able to repair the bones.
• Cycle 4 blood work shows no trace of the M protein in his blood at all!
• All the heart/lung tests were normal – so nothing new to worry about.  Thank Goodness!

The not so great news

• Unfortunately the plasmacytomas did not shrink.  The one in the sacrum is the same size but is not pressing against any bones/nerves so is not causing the pain and limp that it initially caused.  The one near the lung is now three different smaller tumors (it was probably always 3 tumors but they could not see the definitions before). This is actually good news because these appear to have shrunk a little. 
• Dr Lonial and Dr Z both concur that this is nothing to be too alarmed about since they may have limited “hot spots” now (active myeloma cells) within the tumors so they may just be dead tissue that will be in Alpesh’s body forever.  They won’t do any harm but will probably calcify at some point.   

The Gameplan II (at the moment anyway)

• We will harvest Alpesh’s stem cells in February as planned.  The cells will be stored if Alpesh needs to do an autologous transplant in the future. 
• Alpesh will have a Pet Scan to determine if there are any hot spots in the tumors.  If there are any, both Dr Lonial and Dr Z recommend using radiation therapy to “zap” them once and for all to kill active myeloma cells.  They are pretty confident that this will be achieved. 
• Alpesh will then do another 4 cycles of chemo using the same drugs as before, Revlimid, Velcade and Dexamethasone to kill off any microscopic myeloma cells that might be still be in his body after the radiation. 

This is a very top line summary of what the doctors have indicated.  In general the news is very good.  Even though the tumors are still there, the doctors are confident the radiation will kill off the cells so we feel very hopeful.  If Alpesh can sustain the next four cycles, Dr Lonial and Dr Z both have suggested that he may go into remission.  For how long?  We are not sure but it will at least buy us some time and that is what we need. 

Alpesh’s spirits are up – the bone marrow results were a real bonus for us.  No monoclonal cells and no trace of the M protein in his blood – Wow! 

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers…..I think you’re being heard. 

[by Sima]

This entry was posted on January 21, 2009 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.