Free Parking Again

Well it looks like I'm going to be using my free car park pass at the hospital again. Only cancer patients who are undergoing treatment get the free passes! I had my appointment today to get the result of my last blood test to see if the para-protein levels have gone up or down. Unfortunately they have gone up again, which confirms that my bone marrow transplant in August wasn't a success. Also my platelet count is below normal. The three options I have are:

• Allogenic Stem Cell Transplant (another transplant but this time from sibling donor cells)
• Chemo therapy (Velcade) to reduce and keep the para-protein from multiplying
• Clinical Trials

After much discussion as the benefits and side effects of the Allogenic and the Velcade, we now have a plan of action. I also asked what would happen if I did nothing at all, which could be an option.

I have another appointment to have a bone marrow biopsy, for those that have followed blog so far will recall that I had one of these right at the start that was very painful as they couldn’t extract any bone marrow as it was so compact. I’m also having another full skeletal scan to see what affect the myeloma has had so far.

I’ve decided to go down the Velcade (chemo) route, which will be about 5 or 6 cycles lasting about 5 months overall, rather than putting my body through a transplant again so soon after the first.

However before starting on the Velcade they need to see the results of the next lot of test. If one or more of the following has happened then I will be starting on the Velcade.

• The skeletal scan shows an increase in the Lytic Lesions (holes in my bones)
• The bone marrow biopsy clearly show that the marrow is damaged
• My platelets have declined and not gone back to normal.
• Para-Protein has not made a significant increase

Which, with my luck seems unlikely that all of the above are going to be OK.

If by some miracle they are showing

• No increase since the skeletal scan
• Biopsy results are OK
• Platelets normalised
• para-protein levelled off

Then we may not anything but monitor the levels closely.

I could take a guess as to what is going to happen, yes you guessed it free parking and start on Velcade.

I will also be on Steroids as well, a good excuse to start eating lots of cakes.

Another good thing is that I will be drinking plenty of wine while I can before starting any new treatment. So if my speech is slurred I will blame it on the treatment, even though I wouldn’t have started it yet, but sssshhhhh don’t tell anyone and I will get away with it.