karl&myeloma

Well today was my long awaited appointment with Warren. I’d characterize it as a mixed bag.

My M-spike was up again slightly to 0.5 from 0.4 – all other numbers were good. Warren said that an increase of 0.5 points to 0.9 would have meant relapse. I’m clearly not in this camp. He recommended that I take advantage of my good numbers and have a stem cell transplant. I recall at the time when I first heard of stem cell transplant, (see April 2, 2012) that I was told this was a good thing that I was likely eligible for this. When I met with the staff at Moffitt Cancer Center (see April 16, 2012) I was told that I was eligible but not sick enough yet for this procedure.

Warren urged me to contact Moffitt and get this scheduled. I asked him whether we could run some test to see how my shoulder is. He agreed and ordered a PET/CT scan as soon as possible. The last one was 7-months ago. I’d like to see these results before committing to the stem cell transplant. If I do this, I’d like the rough part to be in early January after the holidays.

In the meantime, I’ll continue with the curcumin therapy to which Warren concurs. The peripheral neuropathy continues. Warren gave me a prescription for amitriptaline (Elavil), a tricyclic antidepressant that also apparently has activity against neuropathy. I’ll try it tonight.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for my healing.

Amen.