I have two oncologists. One is my treating oncologist, Dr. B. The second is a referring oncologist, Dr. A. We picked these two docs for a reason.
Dr. B. is a man with a hammer. His hammer is named "transplant".
Dr. A. is a man with a paintbrush. His paintbrush is named "maintenance".
And so, I find myself digesting lots and lots of new information because Dr. A. has suggested that my multiple myeloma can be controlled by chemo now that my numbers are where we'd like them to be.
Don't misunderstand. Both docs are recommending that we do the stem cell harvest on Oct 9. There's been no change in that part of the plan. Logically we're at a point of no return for harvest. It's gonna happen.
But the new info suggests that I have 3 options post harvest.
1) Get the transplant immediately post harvest.
2) Get the transplant at some point more than 30 days post harvest.
3) Don't get a transplant and try to maintain the correct blood levels thru a maintenance level of chemo 'forever'.
Maintenance chemo would be via a drug called RevLimid. It's a derivative / cleaned up version of Thalmid (Thalidomide). It supposedly has fewer side effects than Thalmid. Dexamethasome (steroids) may also be involved. This worries me. Anyone who's read this blog knows how I reacted to Thalmid. Similarly, I'm no great fan of Dex (steroids). So, my options boil down to:
1) Transplant
2) Same-old-same-old drugs.
Now this part is gonna sound confusing, but if 1 or 2 aren't effective, then I have to go back to either 1 or 2 again. Yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it.........
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2 comments:
I would really rather put something else in my pipe and smoke it but if this is all you got, it's all you got. Hey wait a minute, ... I forgot that I don't smoke.
I don't smoke either.... but I would rather go to Starbucks, eating warm chocolate cake for dessert instead of getting a cup of coffee, watching people in and out while reading a magazine or browsing online till bed time and go home.
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