I emailed my doctor, asking what I can do about the small increases in my IgA. First of all, he did say that the increase can be from polyclonal IgA (the good ones). This is a possibility, since my IgG is also going up. He should be back from the ASH meeting now, and hopefully I’ll have an appointment soon. Anyway, I asked him if I should do another 4 days on/4 days off of dex, and he said he’d rather see me increase my dose of Thalomid. Hmm. Not me. I’m already feeling the effects of peripheral neuropathy from the 50 mg/day I’ve been taking since last April. I can forget I have cancer all day long, but I can’t forget I have nerve damage. So, based on the experiences of others, I am going to ask for the addition of Biaxin to my meds.
Category: General
My IgA is creeping up a bit. It’s back up in the 900s again, where it hasn’t been since May/June, 2003. I have emailed Dr. O. and asked if I can proceed with 4 rounds of dex at 4 days on/4 days off. No response from him yet, but I hope to hear from him soon. I expect not to have any disagreement from him. After that, I may choose to add Biaxin to my regimen.
Have you read this article?
http://www.mmsupport.net/index.php?option=articles&task=viewarticle&artid=39&Itemid=3
I missed my regulary scheduled appointment because of bad weather a few weeks back, so I rescheduled for last Wednesday. That appointment was cancelled, due to the fact that my doctor was in the hospital! They said he had a virus. They’ll get in touch with me to reschedule my appointment. I’m hoping it’s soon. I missed getting my lab reports from a few weeks ago. I suppose I can call and ask them to fax the report to me.
I’m on my second day of dex and am not feeling that well from it. I have a headache and am crabby and tired! Look out everyone!
I’m thinking of asking the doc if I can add Biaxin to my treatment, to see if it’ll help get my numbers in the normal range.
I originally had an appointment with Dr. O. yesterday at noon. Unfortunately, at the time I should have left to make it to UNC on time, we were having severe weather here. I called and rescheduled for next week. Wouldn’t you know that the bad weather subsided within the hour? I wouldn’t have had enough time to get there though, so I’ll have to be happy with an appointment next week. I went and had my labs drawn on Tuesday, so everything’ll be ready when I get there. I like to have the results when I see the doctor, so I can ask questions if I need to. Normally, some of the results come back quite quickly (CBCs). I usually have to wait until later that night to get the immunoglobulins.
On one of my first all-encompassing blood tests back in January, one of the reports stated that I had two m-spikes (2.8 g/dL and 0.6) instead of just one. I don’t know how unusual that is. What it means is that there are two errant monoclonal lines. I started dex and thalidomide in April of 2003, and had a blood test in mid-May, which showed just one at 0.4 g/dL. In October, the report came back showing two again (0.3 and 0.2).
Next week I have an appointment at UNC with Dr. Orlowski. I’ll ask him what all this means. UNC doesn’t report an m-spike at all. Perhaps they don’t think it has any significance? The tests where I have m-spike reported are done here at the clinic in Pinehurst, Duke and Dana-Farber.
In addition, my serum IgA seems to have stopped its downward trend. It appears to have gone up a bit. This very well could be a normal immune response, since my IgG and IgM have also gone up.
It seems that after the first month of pulsed dex (4 days on/4 days off), the doses I changed to (weekly dex) more or less maintained the numbers. It’s possible I need another month of pulsed dex to make them move down again.
The owner of Cayo Espanto (http://www.aprivateisland.com) has generously donated time on the island to try to raise some money for research for MM. All we need now is an airline to give us a couple of round trip tickets. If you have connections at any airline that flies to Belize, please let me know.
My Tempur-Pedic bed was delivered today. Boy, is it nice! It’s adjustable and has a massage feature. The massage is very noisy, so it’s not very relaxing. No, it’s not like those Magic Fingers boxes you used to see in motels. It’s great to be able to elevate my legs or upper body. This one has a 10″ mattress. I had a choice between that, and the standard 8″ mattress. I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight so I can experience slumber on a Tempur-Pedic. I got a free Comfort Pillow with my purchase! (I know, I know… nothing’s ever really free.)