One week of revlimid down, 11 (or 17) to go. Having been on revlimid before, I expected to tolerate it fairly well and but for the dizziness it's going OK. I suspect the dizziness is due to the combining every other day prednisone with it. Last time I only took steroids once a week with it. Anyway, not surprisingly it's had an effect on my blood counts. White count dropped a bit from 3.4 to 2.8. Hemoglobin is down to 9.9 from 10.1. Platelets are taking the major beating, having dropped 46 points, from 117 to 71. That explains the bruising on my arms and legs. The slightest bump and I've got a big black and blue mark. Adds to the image of being a warrior, I guess.
It's too early to know if the drug is having any effect on the cancer. That will take 6 weeks or longer. Rifkin continues to look for other options and told me he is meeting with some Japanese pharmaceutical reps to see if he can get HSP 90 (a drug that has gone through clinical trials and had some success, but for reasons I don't understand, is not being produced anymore). This is supposed to be a nontoxic chemo, ie., no side effects. Wouldn't that be nice?
We had a great Thanksgiving. As usual Susan prepared a feast fit for an army and we all indulged ourselves for days on her great cooking. My mom and her husband came down from North Dakota and we were also joined by my nephew, Rob Scheeler (who is in grad school at CU) and his girlfriend, as well as a few other friends. This was the first visit with my mother since we headed off to Little Rock, so it was long overdue and we had much ground to cover. We did our best, spending long hours around the table. Julia especially likes to hear of the exploits of my brothers, sister and me when we were young. It was mostly stories about Tom and Mike misbehaving, however, as I was usually at church, doing my duties as an altar boy.
And that's the status this Thanksgiving. Continuing on our journey, one day at a time.
Best wishes to all for a peaceful holiday season.
Dan
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2 comments:
Hi Dan! Just wanted to let you know I am following your journey and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. As a young guy, I want to be very educated on all the different journeys and yours is very insightful.
Keep laughing and I pray that Rev dominates the MM and not your blood counts!
Phil
Dan -
Glad to hear you are tolerating the Revlimid well so far -- sorry to hear about the platelets! As far as I know, Dana Farber (Paul Richardson and Ken Anderson in particular) are still working with HSP90. I think it is still in trials -- Kathy Giusti of the MMRC and I were talking about it recently.
Happy Holidays to you, Susan and the girls! You and your family remain in our thoughts and prayers!
Warmly,
Nick
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