Life's Journey with Multiple Myeloma

With that title, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that this post is packed with good news! So here’s a quick snapsnot of what happened after Alpesh’s tests in June. The MRI came back indicating that there was some kind of growth in the coccyx area. If you remember, that was the [...]

Well June whizzed by just as quickly as May and I suddenly remembered yesterday that I had not put a June update on the blog! Of course, nothing like leaving it to the last day of the month. June’s been a fun month – we managed to go away for about 8 days with boys, [...]

Here in Florida, May is typically a crazy month for most us. Exams, end of school parties, end of sports seasons, award ceremonies, graduations, the list goes on and on. For Alpesh and I, we had some additional activities which made May disappear on us in a blink of an eye! At the beginning of [...]

Bloodwork remains fairly normal, in fact the free kappa serum has gone back down to 17.4 mg/L. However, the free lambda serum has gone up to 21 mg/L … who knows what’s going on inside that body of his! The good news is that the M protein still appears to be at bay and both [...]

Yes, yes I know this post is long overdue especially since I promised to let you know the results of the serum free kappa lightchains as soon as we got them! Anyway better late than never … we got the latest blood results a few weeks ago and the serum free kappa lightchains are still [...]

So, nothing major – things are same old, same old – we actually like same old, same old – so no complaints at all … Only piece of news that I felt I should share is that in the last blood report, one of Alpesh’s myeloma markers (the free light chains) was a little high [...]

Hope your New Year has got off to a great start. We met with Dr Ansara, the Endocrinologist, last week. She got the results from the thyroid ultrasound and the left lobe is nodule-free and everything looks normal. With hindsight, we probably should have just had Alpesh’s whole thyroid removed at the time of surgery [...]

So here we are … teetering on the edge of 2009 … it always amazes me how quickly the Holiday season whizzes by and how rapidly we get to this point – it is almost as if someone presses a fast forward button as soon as we hit December 1st and before we know it, [...]

To all our friends and family in the US, we hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We certainly did! A wonderful array of delicious food and wine in delightful company was a perfect combination for lots of fun and laughter – what more could we have asked for? To all of you who [...]

Can you believe it? It’s exactly one year from THAT day. The day that changed our lives, the day when we were thrown into a world that we didn’t even know existed(!) – the unfortunate world of Myeloma. It’s certainly been a long journey and it’s not over yet but we’ve definitely learned a great [...]

So it’s been a while since the last update. We’ve done quite a bit of celebrating over the last few weeks and in fact, Alpesh has now got the travel bug! He took his first trip to Islandia for work two weeks ago (first trip since his diagnosis in October). He was very pleased to [...]

We met with Dr Z yesterday and got the following results:   The 24 hr urine sample, showed no trace of the M-protein.  Phew! The peeing in a bucket for 24 hours was worth it!  The MRI reports were crypted in medical jargon which even Dr Z was having a hard time understanding!  Dr Z [...]

Apologies for not updating this sooner  but here’s a quick summary of where we are currently: Alpesh has now completed seven cycles of the RDV combo.  He is currently off meds this week (his rest week).  End of Cycle six results were great – still no trace of the M Protein.  That’s 3 cycles in [...]

I had to write about the first time we “flushed” Alpesh’s Hickman Line at home.  The boys were terribly “excited” which seems like a strange word but they were truly enthused about being able to help.     With everything needing to be sterile – myself, Aaron and Keval donned ourselves with our surgical masks and [...]

As mentioned in our last post, this is the week of truth for us as Alpesh is under-going multiple tests to determine how his insides responded to the four cycles of chemo.  This is what he has had to endure this week: MRI – With almost 4hrs of MRI’s this week, we got a phone [...]

During our appointment with Dr Z on Tuesday, December 9th, we asked for his recommendation regarding the stem cell transplant.  Should we prepare for this option? Alpesh’s case is unique – he only has 11% contamination in his bone marrow, however the rest of his body (the plasmacytomas in particular) shows advanced disease.      Dr Z [...]

Alpesh ended Cycle 2 and he is officially off all the chemo drugs (rest period) until next Tuesday the 9th when it will all start up again for Cycle 3.  Thankfully, he feels just as good as he did after cycle one – click here for details on that update in case you missed it.    He [...]

  As I continue with my treatment, the threat of infection is pretty high, as it is, myeloma affects the immune system and on top of that , the chemo drugs are driving my white blood cells counts lower and lower.  In fact, many myeloma patients don’t die because of myeloma itself, but die due [...]

Alpesh’s bones hurt today.  We had been warned that the first time you take Zometa, you feel you have been hit by a truck.  I think he felt he had been hit by a semi!   Apparently his bones ached, creaked and burned today – I felt so bad for him!  To add to that unfortunately [...]

Today, is my 41st birthday.  I am not one for celebrating my birthday, I always looked at it as getting older and one less year, rather than appreciating another year.  For the boys, we would do the cake thing and take pictures.  Going forward, each birthday will become priceless.   Sima surprised me with an [...]