WTD?? -What’s That Doc??

In a strange new twist of “I have good news and I have bad news”, we received our latest report on my cancerous condition.

1. The Good News: It appears that the drop of 60% Myeloma to 20% was in fact correct.  That means that despite the continual slide of my hemoglobin and platelets, It appears that the months of infusions with Kyprolis actually did reduce the amount of multiple myeloma in my bone marrow very significantly.  The uneven results with the hemoglobin and platelets are most likely side effects of Revlimid, one of the key drugs in my treatment package.
2. HOWEVER The not-so-good news: My blood sample taken today show that after a month off of treatment my hemoglobin had fallen from 8.4 to 7.6!  and the platelets were at a lousy 34.  You don’t want to know what “normal” is. Because these readings were so low, I had another blood draw in honor of Halloween right away today and the hemoglobin showed 8.1 and the platelets were higher but they normally do a manual count which they passed on in order to get the results to us quickly.

The weird thing about all of this is that I normally have felt really lousy in the past when my hemo dropped that low.  Shortness of breath, lack of energy etc. and I was not feeling any of those side effects.

So Dr. Lebovic decided to do the following:

1. He scheduled a PET scan to get a better view of where the cancer is most active in my body.  I HATE PET scans because they require me to be shoved into the claustrophobic tube for most of an hour.  I wish I could handle it like my friend Lisa who said that she just spent the time praying.  I did too…for it to stop!  Not quite as useful.
2. I will begin a new cancer regimen with a drug called Pomalyst in a couple of weeks.  I trust Dr. Lebovic on this choice because he is uniquely qualified to deal with the more refractive (unresponsive) cases of MM, like mine.  Here is the description from the drug company (Celgene)  ***warning reading this may scare the bejeebers out of you *** 

POMALYST® (pomalidomide) is a prescription medicine, taken along with the medicine dexamethasone, used to treat people with multiple myeloma who have received at least 2 prior medicines to treat multiple myeloma, including a type of medicine known as a proteasome inhibitor and lenalidomide, and their disease has become worse during treatment or within 60 days of finishing the last treatment. It is not known if POMALYST is safe and if it works in people under 18 years of age. (lucky me; I’m over 18!)

The positive side of this is that the treatment will simply mean taking one pill every day for three weeks with one week off along with the steroid dexamethasone.  I will however have to go into the clinic for a blood sample once a week for the first month to closely monitor the drug’s impact on me.

So we are off on a new and prayerfully hopeful journey that will finally bring the MM into submission.  We have loved and appreciated Dr. Shurafa and all the wonderful angels/nurses who are part of the infusion center.  We are however, hopeful that Dr. Lebovic will be able to lead us into a new path toward remission or at least greater control of the disease.  We do draw some comfort from the fact that according to the last bone biopsy the MM had lessened.  We are even encouraged that the current drop in hemoglobin and platelets means that without treatment the disease would rage out of control.

Once again thank  you all for  your continued love, support and encouragement.  God has placed me on this path for His own reasons and I rejoice at knowing He will use me if I just let Him, even in the Valley of the Shadow of death.