Data review conference

Today I had a data review conference with the team from the SCCA. It was a review of consent forms as well as a recap of my health conditions with regard to the multiple myeloma and transplant.

My blood numbers are not all normal, but they're in acceptable ranges for treatment. CMV is under control. Everything is a "go" for Monday, August 25, 2008.

However, there were a couple of things that concern me:

1) According to an echocardiogram, I had a heart attack sometime this year. The doctor doesn't necessarily believe the EKG because there were no supporting symptoms I reported. Regardless, the EKG says I had one. Odd.

2) The donor has Type A blood. I have Type O blood. Apparently this won't be an issue with a mini-allo. There's a possibility my blood will eventually change to Type A. At least that's what Ed says.

3) The donor is a 9 point match (of 10). Our major mismatch is at one of the "DR" alleles. I do not produce an antibody for this allele so the doctor says this will increase my chances of having graft-v-host disease (GVHD). There is some benefit to a bit of GVHD as this is what combats the tumor, but excessive GVHD is what degrades the quality of life and/or kills the patient. Have the odds changed?

4) It was once reported that I had chomosome 13 exclusions. Now I'm being told that there are/were none. Was I lied to in the beginning, or have those chromosomes disappeared thru treatment?

5) There were apparently a high number of chromosomes without clonal matches. In other words, these chromosomes have no replicants. They exist independently in their abnormal state. There was no explanation as to why they exist.


Tomorrow I will be trained on my new chemo. Monday I start the process. I'm a bit anxious. Ed is slightly frantic.