Life's Journey with Multiple Myeloma

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 [...]

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, [...]

Alpesh went to see Dr Lonial at Emory on Tuesday, September 22nd. Dr Lonial was really pleased to hear about the great results and congratulated Alpesh on his strength over the last year. One thing he did “ding” Alpesh on was maintenance. He truly believes that the continued use of Revlimid will help prolong the [...]

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 [...]

The last two weeks have been filled with tests, results and getting ready for surgery. Here’s a quick summary of where we are: We met with Dr Z last week. All Myeloma indicators have remained stable. No M protein at all! All other indicators are normal. WBC is around 4 so just slightly below normal [...]

Dear Family & Friends, Firstly a big thank you to you all for being there during this journey. Your words of encouragement, wisdom, advice, prayers, positive energy and good wishes have been the backbone to our strength throughout. With that in mind, I have some unfortunate news to share. In his Almighty wisdom, upstairs has [...]

Apologies for the long gap between posts – things have been a little hectic, however, I am pleased to report that no news is good news!   Everything seems to be going well.  Alpesh completed cycle five and had his rest week last week where he savored the luxury of drinking some beer/wine and dining out.  [...]

This week I started my fifth cycle of the same drugs (Velcade, Revlimid and Dexamethsone) after taking a break for almost 5 weeks, well it wasn’t a break as such since I harvested my stem cells during that time. I have lowered the dex dose to 10mg per day (4 days per week) rather than [...]

Today we were at Dr Reddy’s office for the stem cell collection.  We arrived at 7:30am and Alpesh was hooked up to the stem cell collection machine at around 10:45am.  The blood counts were excellent – he was apparently at his peak in terms of stem cell production so this was the ideal day to [...]

After reading the side effects and what to expect, Alpesh has faired pretty reasonably.  Although his stomach has been unsettled since he came home from the hospital, he has forced himself to eat and has not lost any weight.  He has managed to avoid the dreaded vomiting that we expected.    Since last week, he [...]

Alpesh had his Pet Scan on Tuesday to determine the hotspots.  We do not have the results yet so will keep you posted when we hear something.   Alpesh went into hospital yesterday.  We arrived at 5am for his surgery to have a Hickman Line inserted into his chest.  They got him ready for surgery [...]

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 [...]

  Today was the first day of Cycle 3.  We had a 9:30am appointment with Dr Z.  The appointment went well as he reiterated how happy he is with the results so far (primarily end of cycle one results).  He indicated that he has never seen a patient with such a dramatic decrease in the markers in so short [...]

Today is Alpesh’s last Velcade IV infusion for the second cycle.  Tomorrow will be the end of his second cycle – after that he’s only got two more cycles to go!   Michele, the nurse, spent quite a bit of time trying to find a vein to draw blood today.  The left hand did not cooperate [...]

Today,  I start my 2nd cycle with apprehension.  I have had minimal side effects during the 1st cycle so am hoping to maintain this.  I had an appointment with Dr Z today and he drew blood for the more detail labs.  These labs will provide an insight on how effective the drugs have been so [...]

Today,  I start my treatment.  The doctors and I have decided upon a three drug combination,  Velcade, Revlimid and Dexamethasone.  The cycle will be 3 weeks in total, two weeks of drugs and one week of rest.  I will take the Revlimid pill every day for 14 days,  the Velcade as an IV infusion one [...]

Woke up early and drove the rest of the way to Atlanta.  Appointment at Emory is for 1pm.  My manager, Lee, lives in Atlanta and has kindly suggested meeting up for lunch before we go to Emory.  Thanks Lee for a nice lunch and your words of encouragement and support!  We got to Emory around [...]

We have two appointments today to meet with another oncologist for a second opinion and the other appointment is to meet with the transplant doctor.  The first appointment at MD Anderson is disappointing – no warm and fuzzy doctor unfortunately – just hard facts and doom and gloom.  Not a great feeling when we left [...]