I’ve been worried about some abnormal lab results. Usually I don’t have any abnormals except for the MM. This time I have elevated calcium, phosphorus, LDH, WBC and abs neuts. The WBC and neuts are from the dexamethasone. I didn’t know about the LDH, so I asked my dcotor, and his response was:

“As for the LDH, this is a very non-specific test, and can be elevated for any of a number of reasons, with myeloma being only one of them. Since your protein level was too low to quantify on the SPEP, however, I would not be worried about that.”

The calcium, he said would be dealt with by the Zometa infusiuon. I never had high calcium before, and it has only started being that way since I began taking a daily calcium +D supplement. I have stopped that as of yesterday!

I will be seeing an endocrinologist on June 2nd. He can help me with calcium levels, the glucose intolerance I have on dex days and the hormone levels that must be messed up from dex! I know there must be some, because I have amenorrhea. Aside from the obvious, amenorrhea is nice because my RBC and HGB are waaaaay up! Check my labs and you’ll see. In Jan last year, my HGB was 13.0 and RBC was 3.96. A few days ago, they were 15.6 and 4.84. A little lower in May, but Aunt Flo was here last week for the first time since last summer.

It’s a dex night and I am up at 2:00 am. I have to take a sleep aid and get to bed!!

I have some of my lab results back. I have called a few times to have the nurse fax the entire report, but have had no response to my calls. Here’s what I got via email from my doctor:

The IgA was 952, IgG 354, and IgM 9

It appears that I am stable on the current dex regimen. Numbers are about the same as they were in January. I wonder if 4 day dex pulses for a month would get me lower?

I called in to get the results of my IFE and PE, and here they are:

April 7, 2004

IgG: 361 mg/dL
IgA: 904 mg/dL
IgM: 10 mg/dL
Total protein: 6.7 g/dL

It looks like I can be stable on dex alone. I last took thalidomide in early March. Initially upon stopping, there was an increase. See labs for details. >> LABS <<