Day 55

wbc 4.7 hbg 11.1 hct 33.2 plts 137 Still no appetite.

Day 32

wbc 4.2
hbg 12.2
hct 39.3
plts 97

A first- My doctot told me to stop losing weight.





tuesday mar 22

Day 27

Feeling much better. Food is starting to taste normal again.

Day 25

First day with no nausea ! Staying awake most of the day and feeling a little stronger.

Day 21

was last Friday. wbc 4.5 hgb 11.8 hct 35.6 plts 109

Day 19

wbc 9.0
hgb 11.8
hct 36.6
plts 102

Day 16

I am very tired. Appetite is improving some.

Yesterday was day 15

My wbc went from 4.6 to 6.60.
I was sent home..

Day 7

wbc's less than 0.1 Still having nausea.

Day 5

Wbc's were 0.1. Plts 5, received tranfusion.

Day4

My wbc's are 0.4

Day0 and 1

I received my stem cells back on friday Thay was day 0 wbc was 1.2
Yesterday was day 1 and my wbc was 0.6 HBG was 7.6 and I got 2 units of blood transfused. Still having some nausea. Will write more later.

Fluids today

Went in at 7 am and was home by 2pm. Stopped by at Kroger's and picked up a few supplies to keep Bob with some food. Got me some popsicle's, hopefully they have a freezer. I have a refrigerator in my room for pop and jello. Now laundry tonight and I'm all set for for the hospital in the morning. I was jittery today but no nausea. God is good!

Chemo Day

I received my melphalan today. So far no nausea. Tomorrow I go in for fluids only and then admission to hospital on friday.

My 6 year anniversary

...of being diagnosed with mm is today.
I had double lumen PICC line insert today at Harper hospital. Tomorrow I go in for my chemo (melaphan) and lots of IV fluids. I go in at 7 am and stay until 5 or 6 pm.

Upcoming SCT

I went to Karmanos for a meeting with Dr Ayash and her staff. I will be having a PICC line inserted in my arm on Feb 15th. They don't want to use my mediport to infuse by stem cells plus I will be using more than 1 line anyways. On Feb 16 I will receive a high dose of chemo to wipe out all the remaining myeloma cells in my blood. This will also knock out my immune system. Feb 17th I go back for IV fluids and then on Feb 18th I get admitted to Karmanos and get my stem cells, which I harvested in April 2006 infused. I will be in the hospital for approximately 2weeks or until my wbc's get back to normal range. I will be allowed visitors who will have to wear a mask to enter my room. I can even have over night guests if I want : ) My next goal is to get my haircut really short before I go in and it all falls out.

Next Step

Since my last post I have finished all my pretesting for my SCT. I had an echo cardiogram, a pulmonary function test (PFT) , a chest x-ray, skeletal survey, teeth cleaning and oral exam and a bone marrow biopsy. In my youth I was 5'7". Now due to my compression fractures I am 5'3". This is pretty evident in the picture of me and Julie. We used to be almost the same height. This Wednesday I go to Karmanos to speak with Dr. Ayash. We will decide then when in Feb to do my SCT. In the meantime I am no longer receiving any Velcade or Cytoxin. I am looking forward to this new path my life is going to take. Please keep me in your prayers.

Karmanos Cancer Center

I met with Dr Ayash this morning. It has been almost 5 years since I had my stem cells harvested there (all 14 million of them) . Dr Goldman wants me to finish my transplant which I stopped due to acute kidney failure. My kidneys are now back to normal and I am now a candidate. I was told that they still have my stem cells. Karmanos has started only keeping them for 3 years. I feel like I won the lottery (not really) I told Bob that if my cells were still available I would see it as a sign to go through with the transplant. I feel so good right now. This is the ideal time to do it, while I am healthy enough to survive it. That being said, I am waiting until after the first of the year before starting with any preliminary testing.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Checking in..

It has been more than 2 months since my last post. I am feeling great. My labs are all doing good My serum kappa lights as of Sept 29th are now down to 71.30 and the lambda are 0.98 with a ratio of 72.76. My cr is 1.09 which is now normal for the first time since I went into renal failure back in 2006. I have been taking 15 mg ms contin in the morning and 30 mg at bedtime and this the right dosage for me. I sleep 10 or 11 hours a night and stay awake and functioning with very little discomfort all day. I am a happy camper!! Dr Goldman is going to check with Karmanos to see if they still have my stem cells which I harvested in May 2006. If they are available he wants me to consider finishing my transplant. I told him I will think about it. I recently learned of four more people I know and another young girl (23) who worked with my daughter-in-law who have died . Everyday I thank God for blessing me with more time with my family and friends.
My mother has moved from our house to my sister Sylvia's for the winter and it is working out better then we all expected. My mom will 96 in 25 days. This will be the first birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas we will have spent with her many years. She misses her Florida home, her independence and the warm weather. But her safety is our number 1 concern.

Good report

I saw Dr Goldman today. I have taken 6 cycles of velcade, cytoxan and 4mg of decadron every other day. I am non secretory except for serum free lights. In July prior to starting my kappa free lights was 233 as of 8/18/10 it is now 86.2 This is the lowest it has been in over 2 years. We tried velcade with doxil last year and it didn't work at all. We are all very pleased with the results and as always thank God for them.
The only side effect I have had is that the velcade and my blood sugar medication interact and I have had 3 episodes of low blood sugars. I am now off my amaryl and taking lantus insulin and glucaphage. Otherwise I have had no side effects at all. My pain is now limited to my L hip and some in my ribs. The morphine dose (30mg)he had given me was too high and I slept all the time. So I have been just taking my norco which only lasts 4 hours. Today I got a reduced dose of morphine (15 mg) and hopefully it will be just right. : )
Eve