Thanksgiving Day; more info

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family. We went to Pueblo CO which is a 2.5 hour drive from our house. Dinner was at our daughter in law's parents home. We really enjoyed spending time with our son and daughter in law, and all five of our grandkids. They range in age from 15 to 19; one set of twins. Great kids. It was a super day but tiring.

Doug is still having some hip pain. At first the decrease in pain from the radiation was dramatic; the lingering pain is not good, but we hope it will go away. Doug plans to get a handicapped parking permit, as he can only walk a short distance before hurting. Even standing for long hurts.

I found a couple of scientific papers on light chain disease. Here is an excerpt from one:

"Up to 20 percent of patients have a minimally elevated (less than 1 g per dL [10 g per L]) or normal serum γ-globulin level; the latter group has elevated urine excretion of light chains (κ or λ), which is often called Bence Jones myeloma. The type and amount of urine monoclonal light chains are typically measured with urine protein immunofixation. There is an even smaller subgroup (3 percent of multiple myeloma cases) with undetectable serum or urine M proteins on electrophoresis or immunofixation. This subgroup, called nonsecretory multiple myeloma, is diagnosed in patients with an abnormal serum free light chain ratio."

Sorry for the technical language, but I think some of the blog followers are myeloma patients and might appreciate the information. I don't believe everything I find on the web and am careful to seek only the .gov or .edu sites. I didn't find the Multiple Myeloma News to be very helpful, nor was the International Multiple Myeloma Foundation (myeloma.org). Doug falls into the 3% subgroup; that helps explain the lack of information out there.

Correction: on 12-2-11 when we saw Dr. Matous for the second opinion, he said the correct term for what Doug has now is "Lambda Light Chain Myeloma", and 15% of myeloma patients are in this group.
Another paper says: "Light chains can cause a rapid decline of renal (kidney) function as most light chains are quickly filtered by the kidneys."  The word "can" does not mean "will"!

We are blessed to have strong faith and a personal relationship with God. I will close with this quote:

"When we come to the edge of the light we know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, of this we can be sure. Either God will provide something solid to stand on or .... We will be taught to fly."            unknown author