Arthur's Column

So this week is the start of the second cycle of induction and a chance to visit the Prof for his take on how its all going. And in his words – “quite remarkable – very rarely see the paraproteins reduce so fast”. In other words its working!

Paraproteins are the measure for myeloma type diseases. There shouldn’t be any, and any significant amount (>30g/L) is indicative of Myeloma. Lower levels typically mean MGUS which is not relevant here.

As you can see the Paraprotein serum is down from over 40g/L when I started treatment to 13g/L. There are still other issues but this at least means the induction is working.

I am in general fine – had a slight cold last week which took a lot longer to shake than usual – but apart from that just more tired than normal. I will continue with these cycles they say for 4 or 6 cycles – it seems that 6 is better than 4 so if I don’t start developing issues I guess it will be 6 cycles (35 days).

Thank you all for your support and messages!

Well there is not a lot to tell. The treatment does take its toll a bit. I get tired – super tired towards the end of the week. Friday night I had a bit of a scare with a temp of 38.4 but after calling the help line they told me to take some paracetamol which seemed to do the trick.

Never occurred to me – was thinking it was for pain! But of course we give it to kids for fever so I guess it has dual use.

Anyway – this coming Monday is the last injection in this first cycle and then I guess they look at the blood and see how well its working. I see the Oncologist on 18 March so that will be when I know a bit more about what is going on. Until then – soldiering on!