Since Gil's bone marrow is basically 100% plasma (myeloma) cells at this point, there's little room for little baby red, white and platlete cells to be made and nurtured. Hence his difficulty in multiplying and being fruitful with the cells he's been transfused with, though there has been some progress on that front. He just went a full 7 days with NO transfusions! but yesterday was back to red blood 8.2, white 1.6, neutrophils 840, platelets 12 (needing 3 bags full, so to speak) and IGG creeping down (that's good) to 3090. He has responded somewhat to the VelcadeRevlemidPrednesone (VRP) regimin of the last month. He's steadier on his feet and has been able to play cards and pool somedays.
The Plan:
To beef up his response to his chemo by introducing a new one (doxorubicin, hereafter known as doxo)on top of the VRP. It will be added to the Velcade on Monday.
And four days of dexamethasone starting last night. Yes, we decided to head into potential dex induced psychosis land with our eyes open and back at our familiar home, with friends in the wings to be back up monitors as needed. The reason we're doing this is that looking back, dex was the most effective chemo during this last couple of months, and if we can give the myeloma a solid body blow then perhaps the other drugs may become more effective.
For us both, this is the scariest part of the path forward, but we're in better shape stepping into it consciously. And who knows, perhaps being stronger all around, he'll have less reaction this time.
So we are finally moving back to the farm and out of Winnemac and we are driving our new Prius. And I'm ruminating about my addiction to "giving" and difficulty asking for help which I darn well better deal with during this next phase, and about Grace. I hope to get them into words in future posts.
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