Jump in Light Chains - a fluke?

Doug is in remission. But the most recent myeloma panel, drawn April 1, showed a jump in the Lambda light chains: up to 92, when the one before that was 16. 16 is in the normal range, 92 is not. What does this mean? Is he falling out of remission, or is this one a fluke? The oncologist says the light chains can be fickle. Doug's next Denver appointment is June 8, so we asked if we can get another myeloma panel done before then. We will get the blood draw in May. Meanwhile we play the waiting game.

We left a week ago for eastern Nebraska, to check on Doug's mom and celebrate her 103rd birthday! Amazingly, she is in good health - except for having only peripheral vision, very hard of hearing, and very poor short term memory. She has wonderful 24/7 live in caregivers who take turns (Home Instead is wonderful). They help her dress, fix her meals and encourage her to eat, make sure she takes her meds (only two prescription pills) and try to keep her engaged. Doug's brother and his wife were there also. Mom kept asking "how old am I?" She says "old age isn't for sissies." She is ready to go live in heaven where her loved ones are. I don't understand why God keeps old people on this earth beyond their desire to live, yet babies and young people die. I won't get that answer until I too live in heaven. I believe God has a reason for everything he does.

On the third day of our trip, Doug woke in the hotel room and told me he could not get out of bed. He had severe neck pain. Took me 15 minutes to figure out how to help him get up without causing more pain. I drove him to the local ER; the doc ordered x-rays and a CT scan of the neck. The scan showed a couple of lesions in C-1 and C-2. No way to tell if these are old or new. I looked back in Doug's radiology reports and can't find documentation, but we choose to believe these are old lesions. The doc gave Doug two different kinds of strong pain drugs.

We had planned to stay two more days, and drive on to Omaha to see two of our young adult grandsons. But we decided to cancel those plans and get back home. The pain meds made Doug loopy and unable to drive. So I had to drive us home, a distance of about 600 miles. Anyone who knows me very well knows that I am not a highway driver. I have a very hard time of staying awake and alert enough to be a safe driver. I prayed a lot, and relied on God to enable me to drive safely. And He did! Doug likes to make the trip in one day, but I drove halfway and we continued on the next day. We ran into some rain and light snow, but we beat the big storm that hit the day after. Over 12" of spring snow. Glad I wasn't driving in that.

Yesterday we were able to see our nurse practitioner at our clinic. She thinks Doug has a muscle sprain, probably aggravated by all the driving he did the first day. We gave her a copy of the CT scan done in Nebraska, and she sent it to the radiologist for comparison with an earlier scan done two years ago. No report on that yet.

So we wait. We choose to believe the spine lesions are old ones, and that the rise in light chains is a fluke. We are wearing our rose colored glasses and the view is just fine.

Love to all.

No More Cytoxan!

Now that he is in remission Doug is finally off cytoxan. I hope the skin thinning gets better; his skin is so fragile and bruises so easily. Pomalyst is cut from 2 mg down to 1 mg, and the pred is cut from 50 mg to 20mg other day. A much better drug situation. He will stay on this maintenance schedule long term - as long as he tolerates it.
Too early to tell yet if he will have more energy.

Doug's glaucoma meds changed also. Now his eye pressure is 14 in both eyes; down from 18, a big improvement. We hope the optic nerve damage won't get worse.

Diabetes low carb diet is very tolerable. Cauliflower "mashed taters" tonight!

We have a trip to Nebraska coming up next week. Doug's mom will turn 103. Amazing very sweet woman. Doug's brother and wife will be there also. I am looking forward to visiting two cousins, two old friends and hopefully two grandsons.

Love to all.

"All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us." 2 Corinthians 1:3