Light Chains Rising

The latest myeloma panel shows Doug's Lambda light chains are rising - doubling from last month. This what is used as his cancer marker. Obviously this is not good, but right now the light chain level is not alarming. Just a sign the cancer cells are awake, maybe starting to rumble a bit. We already know he will need to restart treatment at some point, maybe in the near future.

The new dosing of gabapentin - 600 mg three times a day - is making Doug tire even more easily, and sometimes a bit dizzy, but its too soon to tell if it will help the neuropathy. Naps are a good thing. Otherwise, he is feeling pretty good.

More Gabapentin

Doug has recovered from the flu and is gaining strength every day. He is back to Physical Therapy and the dreaded exercises. We even went out to lunch the other day - something we haven't done for a while. We tried a new lunch place in town and really enjoyed it.

Yesterday we went to Denver for the monthly oncology check. This time we saw the specialist's nurse practioner because the specialist was on a bicycling vacation in Italy. He always comes back refreshed and "pumped up", pardon the pun. The NP is very good; we have seen her before. Since Doug still has the peripheral neuropathy in his feet, she suggested increasing the Gabapentin dose. Currently he takes 600 mg twice a day. He will now be taking 600 mg three times a day. If he can tolerate it, that is. Gabapentin can cause dizziness and mental fog.
While in the clinic, Doug got his infusion of Zometa.

Still on chemo vacation, as long as the cancer numbers are not rising too high, and he continues to have PN.

Praise the Lord for his provision!

Love to all.

Flu

Doug is on day five of having the flu. It started late on Saturday - it seems a lot of illnesses start on the weekend. Luckily, a few months ago, at the height of the flu season, our PCP wrote prescriptions for Tamiflu for both of us. We didn't need it then, so the pharmacy kept those scripts on file. Early Sunday morning, I was able to fill Doug's prescription for Tamiflu and get him started on that. I think that helped a lot. Doug has had fevers, chills, sweats - just feeling crummy and not wanting to eat. Yesterday we were able to get an appointment at our local clinic. Our wonderful nurse practitioner added an antibiotic just to make sure all bases are covered as far as him getting a secondary infection.

Doug's physical therapy has been slow to show results. Now, of course, he is weakened by the flu so he will have to really work to regain strength. But he will.

We had to cancel a trip to Nebraska. We were planning to go see Doug's mom who is 102 years old. She is doing well considering her age.
I'm thankful he got sick before we left. Always better to be home when we are not well.

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