Life's Journey with Multiple Myeloma

Dr Z gave Alpesh the End of Cycle 5 results and everything looks really good.  There is no trace of the M protein and all other markers still remain within normal range.   WBC is still hovering around the 3 area so they are lower than earlier this year but we assume this is because the chemo is really taking a toll on his insides.  His platelets are around the 150 range so we are hoping this upcoming week off will help to bring that number up.

Regardless of everything, he is still going strong – working, playing and remaining positive as before.  With two cycles to go, we start wondering now what will happen when he comes off the medication?  Will numbers start creeping up or will he be able to maintain the remission for a good length of time?  Even though we’d rather not think about this and I know all of you will advise us not to, it is still in the back of our minds.   We also will need to decide if some type of maintenance medication should be taken to keep the beast under control or should we give the body a chance to rest/recover and try to fight itself.  We will leave that discussion for another day.

Although we had always been fairly healthy eaters, we still made some changes to our diet after reading suggestions from fellow MM sufferers/nutritional websites and an excellent book that was sent to us from Sorell (Thank you Sorell!).

Alpesh is having no caffeine at the moment (apparently interferes with some of the chemo drugs) and I have managed to make him eat more fresh fruit and vegetables (including lots of broccoli much to his dismay!).  Broccoli is supposed to be the miracle food and since I’ve loved it from a young age, I agree wholeheartedly.  You will find it harder to get Alpesh to agree.  Nevertheless, Alpesh actually increased his appetite over the last 6 months and has managed to maintain his weight and keep his strength up which we believe is how he has coped so well with the chemo. 

Cycle 7 will start next week (April 5^th) and we hope to conclude all cycles by week of May 12^th at which time Alpesh will have completed eight cycles of the RDV drug combination. 

[by Sima]

This entry was posted on March 31, 2009 at 11:46 am 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.