Maintenance Cycles 7 & 8 complete + the gastrointestinal lottery

Please help me put an end to blood cancer. I’m raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and participating in “Light the Night” on November 8 at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Two more cycles down, 4 to go until I will be able to stop this current regime and reduce it to just a single pill (in March of next year).

Each cycle has gotten worse in terms of side effects. I am usually groggy for a few days after the infusions and for the steriod come-down. I had a scary few days about three weeks ago where I thought I was on the road to Pneumonia again, but somehow I recovered with the help of a lot of Day/NyQuil. (so much that my liver enzyme numbers were above normal as of my last blood draw) I’m usually blessed each day with either constipation or diarrhea… I just can’t pick a favorite. I’ve got bone and miscellaneous body aches

The only scary thing is my IgG numbers. I’m pretty regularly below 400 now, and the nurse says I may have to get another plasma infusion at some point in the near future.

All that said, I can’t complain. Remission holds, myeloma labs look good, and somehow my last injections didn’t really cause any trouble for the first time in awhile. My nurse said that I could just take my whole dex dose on wednesday nights, and that’s going to help a ton. I was splitting it up on Thursday and Friday mornings as I switched my infusion times to the late afternoon.

I was able to travel to Kansas City for the Chiefs home opener. They’re looking really good this year. I don’t have any other travel planned for the rest of the year except for a conference in Vegas at the end of November. I hope to be able to get out a lot more in 2019 after the immune system kicks back into gear after this treatment phase is over.

I have my next specialist appointment on November 6, and I should have my monthly Myeloma labs back by then.