Starting Cycle 2

I had essentially 2 weeks off between cycles. In those 2 weeks my back went into serious spasm. I attributed it to coming off the steroids and expected it would improve before I started the second cycle. No such luck. The burning pain radiates around from the back through the lower ribs and also through the chest. Xray on Friday reveals no change from previous films except more arthritis. Fortunately this eliminates the concern about spinal cord impingement but doesn't answer the cause of this latest limitation. Trying to use pain killers but so far vicodin and percocet don't touch it. My own analysis is its pinched nerves from the multiple compression fractures.

Started the second cycle of carfilzomib this week, Thurs and Fri. I don't notice many side effects other than the fatigue. But the chemo hits my blood counts hard (red cells and platelets) which cause me to go to the hospital for multiple transfusions. For example, I received chemo Thursday p.m., then blood and platelets on Friday morning, went to the clinic for another dose of chemo and discovered I needed another 2 units of blood. Back to the hospital and another 12 hour day. Same thing happened 2 weeks ago. Julia and Bob have given up their Friday nights to bring me dinner on these Friday nights and keep me company. Very sweet.

No news on whether carfilzomib is working. Should know by late October/early November.

Dan