So Cycle 3 is underway! We met with Dr. Aljitawi a little earlier and he was very encouraged by my response rate so far. The type of abnormal proteins I'm producing (free kappa light chains) have been reduced by 90%, so he is considering this a "good, partial remission" so far. The goal is to get me to a complete remission, with zero free kappa light chains before transplant...which will give me a better prognosis after transplant. But even if the kappa light chains do not go down any further (although they are predicting that they will continue to decline), I will still have a pretty good prognosis after transplant. So all in all the visit with the doctor today went well.
My creatinine went up to 1.97, which I predicted based on how I've been feeling. So now I'm getting 1 liter of IV fluids and hope tomorrow I have my 'roid' high with the IV fluid and steroid combo!
When my blood tests came back, I was told because of the levels I would need a blood transfusion. Kristy looked at the results and lots of values were down and it didn't make sense. She thought as the nurse took blood for the test the first tube she filled she may not have 'wasted' i.e. the saline in my IV was not discarded before putting the blood in to test. So...she asked for the test to done again...and eagle eye Kristy was right! All blood values were good and no transfusion was needed - thank you Kristy!
Because my platelets and white blood counts are normal they have raised my Revlimid dose from 10 to 25mg. They wanted to give me a full dose (which is 25mg) if possible and see how I tolerate it, the side effects so far from 10mg have been nausea, fatigue and neuropathy in my feet (numbness) which so far has gone away the next day or so but I have been promised it will 'come to stay' with more Revlimid...we'll see.
So all in all a good visit with encouraging progress. 5.5 hours is a long time to be at clinic, though.
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