Category: General

Well, I’m about to start my Rev/dex regimen. I’ll take 40 mg of dex this morning with breakfast and then at lunch I’ll take the 25 mg of Revlimid. At dinner, I’ll take the 2 mg of Coumadin I’m getting as a preventative for DVT. Each center has the option of using baby aspirin or low dose Coumadin.

The doc says there’s a smaller risk of DVT with rev/dex than there is with thal/dex. I don’t believe I’m in an at risk group, but I’m careful about sitting for long periods of time without moving (long flights or car trips, for example). Even people who are healthy can develop DVT from that! Remember David Blum from NBC who died from DVT after his long flight to Iraq to cover the “war?”

Somehow my post about starting rev/dex turned into a sermon about DVT. Sorry about that!

I’m dreading taking the dex. It’s been about 6 months since I had any. As you recall, I was off dex for 4 weeks before the CNTO 328 trial and for the duration of my participation in that trial. After the trial, in anticipation of getting into the rev/dex EAP trial, I stayed off all treatment. It’s been a few months since I did anything at all except Zometa. It’s been so nice not having to take anything. My IgA has been hovering in the 2500 mg/dL range during this time.

I’m hoping that rev/dex will knock the MM back and give me a CR. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was a durable remission? There isn’t anything I want more, except world peace. :)

If you want to laugh, try watching Arrested Development on Fox. It’s not for everyone but, if you have a little bit of a warped sense of humor, you’ll really, really like it. The show stars Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Jason Bateman, David Cross and others. There have been some wonderful guest stars like Charlize Theron, Martin Short, Henry Winkler and Liza Minnelli. The episodes are narrated by Ron Howard, who I think might be one of the producers or something. This is at the top of my list of all-time favorite television programs.

Pleeeeease don’t let this show be cancelled! Contact your local Fox affiliate and Fox now!

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Arrested Development

Celgene (http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=CELG)
Corp. said it would price its new medicine for a rare blood disease at about $54,000 annually, and argued that the drug would save the health-care system money.

Um… well, I’m glad I’m going to be in a trial. Free drugs. Even though I have good insurance, there is a lifetime limit of a million dollars. If I live 10 more years on drugs that cost $50 a year, that will use half! Zometa is almost $20k a year, although I doubt I’ll be on that every month for the rest of my life, since it’s known to cause ONJ in some patients. I’m going to see if I can cut back to every other month for now.

I just finished upgrading the software I use for this blog (WordPress) to the latest version. It always makes me nervous to do upgrades. I tend to rush and not backup stuff beforehand. This time I did, and all went well.

Today’s the day I’m collecting for the 24 hr urine test. I have to leep reminding myself it’s not a contest to see how much I can get. I start to worry if it’s not looking like it’s enough. I can only do what I can do, right?

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s a test that we with MM have to do every once in a while. It’s called a 24 hour urine test. We have to save all our urine in a jug for 24 hours, starting with the second “event” of the day and ending with the first of the next day. Then we lug the jug to the doc’s office and they send it off for testing. What they’re trying to determine, is the amount of what used to be known as Bence-Jones protein.

It’s a complicated process, and it’s always amazing to me that someone even figured this stuff out.

Did I ever mention that I once saw a crop circle? No? I did! I was in England, in Wiltshire, near Avebury. We were checking out the West Kennet long barrow near Silbury Hill and saw the crop circle. I believe they’re made by people, of course, and not aliens. It was a beautiful sight, but not more interesting than the long barrow or the stones at Avebury. Wiltshire is just beautiful, if you ask me. In fact, the whole country is beautiful. That was one place I didn’t want to come home from. Imagine (Americans) driving down a country road (on the wrong side) and seeing a castle! We just don’t have many things like that here. Check out this site for more information.

If you’re a little insulted that I’m overawed by the accomplishments of my English ancestors, check out this amazing structure. It was created by native Americans more than 3000 years ago. I visited there as a child, and felt it was a magical place.

The title sounds very encouraging, but I was hoping for more detailed information in the article. If anyone has the complete report, I’d be interested in reading it.

I’m quoting the entire article below, in case the location changes, but here’s the URL:

http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20051223-113103-7425r

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (UPI) — Weill Medical College of Cornell University researchers in New York think they found the mechanism that triggers relapse in patients with multiple myeloma.

While available drugs can push the disease into temporary remission, fatal, uncontrolled cell division always re-emerges over time, and until now, the cellular mechanism driving this relapse has remained unclear, according senior researcher Dr. Selina Chen-Kiang, professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Multiple myeloma originates deep in the bone marrow and is the second most common blood cancer. The disease is always fatal, with an average life expectancy after diagnosis of just three years.

“There are drugs that are geared to getting people into remission, but they ultimately fail because there are still cancer cells that have the potential for self-renewal — they’ll rise again and start dividing,” says Chen-Kiang.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology and published in Cancer Research.

Normally I put all the lab results in a table, but I’m feeling lazy today. My IgA has not gone up in a few months. Could this mean I’m stable? Do I need to hold off on treatment until my IgA goes up? My CBCs are all normal.

TEST	RESULT	UNITS		LIMITS
WBC	5.9	x10E3/uL		4.0 - 10.5
RBC	4.07	x10E6/uL		3.80 - 5.10
HGB	12.0	g/dL		11.5 - 15.0
HCT	35.1	%		34.00  -44.00
PLT	288	x10E3/uL		140 - 415
ANC	3.1	x10E3/uL		1.8 - 7.8
IgG	259	mg/dL		700 - 1600
IgA	2445	mg/dL		70 - 400
IgM	<6	mg/dL		40 - 230