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.