Dental Implant Procedure
My Dental Implant
This post has nothing to do with myeloma, except that I am able do implants now because I am not (yet) taking any bisphosphonates. I'm writing it here because it was an interesting experience and I want to keep a permanent record of it.
My left lower jaw is running out of teeth. Number 17, the "wisdom tooth," has been gone for 50 years (possibly explaining the lack of wisdom). Number 18, a huge molar, is in place and working, the only remaining chewing surface. Numbers 19 and 20 have been gone for years, and number 21 has been slowly "resorbed" (dissolved from the inside - unusual) over the last fiv...
Source: Myeloma Hope - September 14, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Best M-Spike in Four Years
Thursday, August 22, 2013,
Pomalyst Study Cycle 71:
M-Spike was 0.9 g/dL this morning, compared with 1.1 last month. The last time that M-Spike was 0.9 or less was December, 2009, so we had a little celebration this morning. IgG was down as well, from 1290 mg/dL to 1100, although it has been at least that low three other times this year, so the combined results are definitely good news but probably not a breakthrough.
Lambda and Kappa light chains were both just above the tops of their respective reference ranges. That seems to be a new normal for me - they're both slightly high. The ratio was fin...
Source: Myeloma Hope - August 27, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Avoiding Myeloma Progression
Pomalyst Study Cycle 70:
IgG was basically unchanged this month, compared with last month, at 1290 mg/dL. M-spike was 1.1 g/dL, compared with 1.0 last month, but it isn't very accurate and probably should have been 1.1 last month. Light chains wobbled a little but I never know what to think of them anyway. Dr YLH and I agreed that the myeloma remains stable after 70 28-day cycles.
Myeloma Progression:
I dread the day that my myeloma figures out how to defeat the Pomalyst. Every 28 days we check for problems, and I never really breathe easy until I get the numbers. So far, though, the Pomalyst (2 mg daily as a singl...
Source: Myeloma Hope - July 27, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Mixed Results
Pomalyst Study Cycle 69
Thursday, June 27, 2013:
M-Spike and IgG:
IgG went up 21% in the last 28 days, from 1070 mg/dL last month to 1300 this month. M-spike comes in later but usually follows IgG closely, so I left Mayo for home assuming that the cancer markers, with an up-and-down history, were going up again. After the 90-minute drive home, though, I checked into Mayo Clinic on line and M-spike had a value of 1.0 g/dL (1000 mg/dL), unchanged from the previous cycle. How could that be?
IgG is the sum of the "bad" IgG, the useless monoclonal proteins produced by the myeloma cells and measured by the M-spike, and th...
Source: Myeloma Hope - June 28, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Very Bad Luck
Saturn Ion. Their other
car looks just the same.
Our son and his sweet wife are enduring more than their share of tribulations lately, starting with her diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer, then a house burglary on Easter Sunday, then the death of his grandfather (my Dad), and finally, on the very day of Dad's funeral, a lightning fire resulting in the total loss of their brand-new home.
Living Room
The local NBC station here, KARE 11, ran this story the day of the fire.
Friends asked if they could help, so the beleaguered couple established a 'Fire Recovery Fund'. Please feel free to pass it on if you know o...
Source: Myeloma Hope - June 25, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Grandma's Marathon Skipped
Saturday, June 22, 2013:
I didn't run Grandma's after all. Our son's house was struck by lightning Friday morning and burst
into flames, a total loss. We attended my Dad's funeral Friday and then went home to help our son and
his wife.
The house looks like this too.
Thursday, June 20:
2 miles or so in the park, running with grandson, more or less.
Tuesday, June 18:
2.5 miles in the park, tapering.
Sunday, June 16:
3.6 miles in the park again, in 37:46. I ran/walked 20/20 this time, probably something like what I
will do in the upcoming marathon. Maybe 30/30. Pace was 10:30, about a minute faster than I...
Source: Myeloma Hope - June 23, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
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New Era
My dad died a few days ago, a wonderful gentleman, age 100, as sharp as anyone, still with more friends than most of us could ever hope to have. He was very handy and quite smart, and all his life he helped anyone who asked, with no expectation of a return. He had ten visitors on the very day that he died.
He was also my best fan, apart from my sweeties, always asking for the itinerary of our next marathon trip, wanting to know the results, and appreciating the occasional news story about his marathoner with myeloma. His loss leaves an emptiness for many people and for me especially. I love you Dad, go...
Source: Myeloma Hope - June 17, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Record Snow at Mayo Clinic
Thursday, May 2, 2013:
We Minnesotans thought we were done with snow for the season. Highway departments had even removed the plows from their big trucks, converting them for summer use. After all, Rochester, Minnesota's previous all-time record snowfall for the entire month of May was two inches. Last night and today, though, Rochester and Mayo Clinic got a foot. We saw the forecasts and drove from our home to Rochester yesterday afternoon before the storm, staying at a hotel. Today we did our medical business entirely indoors, using the clinic's warm, dry honeycomb of tunnels, returning home this afternoon when the...
Source: Myeloma Hope - May 4, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Five Years on Pomalyst (Pomalidomide)
"Pomalyst" is a little easier to say and write than "pomalidomide," so I prefer it. Today was the end of the 65th 28-day cycle of the trial, and my myeloma is still stable. IgG and M-spike are up somewhat, but within the range of recent results and I believe this is a normal fluctuation. Further, and very important, a five-year-anniversary PET scan shows no lesions, not in the bones or anywhere else. In my book, as long as kidney function, blood counts, and calcium are normal, the PET scan is the best measure of the immediate level of actual injury from my myeloma.
View from our front door two days ago
IgG is actua...
Source: Myeloma Hope - March 8, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
Pomalyst (Pomalidomide) Approved by FDA
Five years ago two different therapies had failed to stop my myeloma's upward climb, and finally a PET scan showed holes in my bones. This was Stage I disease, and time for a treatment that would actually work for me! I went on a trial of CC-4047 (later pomalidomide, now Pomalyst) with dexamethasone, then eventually Pomalyst alone. It brought my numbers down quickly, and now my myeloma remains stable, with an M-spike of about 1.1 mg/dL. More-recent PET scans and X-rays have not found holes in my bones.
My family and I have enjoyed five free years, with a high quality of life. During that time I have been privileged t...
Source: Myeloma Hope - February 8, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: Pomalyst Source Type: blogs
Neutrophils Are Higher in the Afternoon
Maybe not for everyone, but they sure are for me. My doctors and I have known that for several years now, and for the Pomalyst (CC-4047, pomalidomide) study I have gone to a local clinic in the afternoon of the day before my appointment at Mayo Clinic. Doing it that way, my neutrophils have always been above the 1000/uL lower limit enforced by the study. Below that limit a patient might be in danger of neutropenic fever or other problems, so the treatment regimen must be discontinued until the neutrophils reassert themselves. It's not cheating to measure the neutrophils when they show highest, I'm told, because they ar...
Source: Myeloma Hope - February 8, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: Pomalyst Source Type: blogs
Alive for Another Month
Thursday, January 10, 2013:
Well, that title is a bit over-dramatic. But it is how I feel, every month when the results come in and the cancer is still stable. The study drug pomalidomide will doubtless stop working for me someday, but this month is in the bank. When (if) the drug fails there will be other drugs and some more months, but nothing can take away these wonderful, joyous months and years that it has given me.
Pomalidomide Trial:
Chicken, squash, broccoli, white and
sweet spuds, mustard, all organic
Today was the end of Cycle 63 of my participation in the study of pomalidomide. That drug has ...
Source: Myeloma Hope - January 13, 2013 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs
