Friday, December 27, 2019

Light chains still rising , Merry Christmas

We had a very good Christmas, with our son Kelly, daughter in law Jamee, and all five of our grandkids. I drove us to Highlands Ranch and back; roads were pretty good. Our grandkids are all in their 20's, moved out and working so getting them all together at the same time is a rarity. They opened presents with all the glee and no decorum - fun to watch!
Jamee and Kelly provided a wonderful brunch and we all sat at a long table - just like Norman Rockwell.
Christmas Eve we stayed home and watched the service on YouTube. It's always a big crowd at church.

Doug had his infusion yesterday, Dec 26. He weighed 156, pretty stable for him these days.
His counts were
  • WBC          3.0           (normal is 4.5 to 10.0)
  • HGB         12.4            (    "         14 to 18)
  • PLT           127             (    "       130 to 400)
  • ANC          1.0              (     "       1.8 to 8.3)  Low but qualifying 
  Gammaglobulins were low as usual.

Doug's Lambda light chains (cancer markers) rose again, from 6.6 last month to 12.0 mg/dL. Back in July, the Denver myeloma specialist said "if the Lambda light chains get to 300 mg/L" he will change Doug's treatment. It's a little confusing since our local med center uses Mayo values of mg/dL and Denver uses mg/L - we have to move the decimal to the right to get apples to apples.
So 12 becomes 120. We have a ways to go before hitting 300 but the trend is upward, unfortunately.

Dr. A, the local oncologist spoke to Doug while he was in the infusion chair. She said she is keeping a close eye on the light chains and is keeping Dr. M, the Denver specialist, posted.

We had more snow here today. It's very pretty and was about 6 or 7" but fluffy. Our 'greatest in the world' neighbors shoveled the drive before we got to it. Thanks Doug and Donna!

Doug is feeling fairly well and we have much to be thankful for.

Happy New Year to all!

Verse for the day:
May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.  2 Th 3:5

Sunday, December 15, 2019

ANC came up!

Doug had his dara infusion last Thursday. After a week off Pomalyst, his ANC came up from 0.7 to 1.9. Good! His weight was 156 - it has been stable for the last few weeks.
The nurse drew extra blood for the myeloma panel; no telling when we will get those results.

Doug has had a couple episodes of vomiting with no warning, and he feels fine afterward; no fever. Nothing to be concerned about unless it gets more frequent.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and safe travels.

Love to all.