Saw Prof today – a weird moment as is the 8th anniversary today of me meeting him for the first time and being diagnosed with this previously unheard-of thing called Myeloma.
And as ever the Myeloma mystery path continues.
I seem to have already hit a plateau using the new wonder drug, Dara. But this may still be just about ok as I had only had 1 dose of its running mate, Velcade, when the numbers started to begin rising again slightly. So the big plan now is to whack in as many doses of Velcade as possible over the coming month and to take stock again then.
Didn't really help when he said ' – what? you're going on holiday next week – can you cancel it?' Funnily enough that was a flat no from me. Just typical that despite having planned the holiday dates totally around treatment, the treatment dates then shift to bugger it up. But we are def going this Sat!
Also a bit of a mindfuck when he said that if Velcade doesn't bring my scores down again, he would use the 8 years old stem cells for the SCT, rather than harvesting new ones. Which didn't make sense to me as my current blood is only 1.7 in terms of the PP levels – but he insisted that if I came off treatment for a month and then had 2 weeks of getting the stem cells, it might be pretty much the same in terms of quality levels. I personally feel the 'fresh' stuff which really will not leap up past a score of 8 within 6 weeks would be better, but that's a battle to keep stored up until it's needed. Could be sooner than I think as if Velcade doesn't work, SCT would happen fairly sharpish..
So – a bit disappointing that Dara alone can't get me into remission – but a fair chance that in combo with Velcade things may keep heading south (in a good way!)
Have got two Velcade doses and my usual 7 hours of Dara joy at PS tomorrow – drugs, drugs, drugs – will be v nice to have a week off even if it's not such a good idea.. x