Early signs of relapse?

Went to Denver yesterday to see the myeloma specialist. We saw his nurse practitioner this time because the doc is in France. He goes all over to myeloma conferences - keeps him up to date. We knew he would be gone. His N.P. is wonderful - Dr. M says she knows as much as he does. That might be a stretch, but she's very good.

Doug's Lambda light chains are up again, but they are rising slowly. In May they were 35.47; July 55.1; now 71.5.  (Normal range is 5.71 to 26.30.) To put it in perspective, when he had his last relapse they were 269. So it seems he is probably heading for another relapse. Because the numbers are rising so slowly, and because he is in pretty good shape otherwise, the N.P. decided not to change anything right now. He will get another myeloma panel in two months - "more data" as she put it. We think this is a reasonable decision; in fact we anticipated it.
The N.P. said they might not take Doug off his current therapy Pomalyst; but rather add prednisone back and possibly cytoxan.

Doug is feeling well except for a flare up of sciatica. The pain is pretty bad and goes down his left leg. It comes and goes - he didn't have it for the last couple of months. We were able to go on walks together. Not now. In the past he has tried physical therapy, which did help some. Today he has an appointment with a female chiropractor who is new in town. A friend of a friend said she helped him with sciatica. The myeloma N.P. cautioned Doug to make sure the chiro knows his history and "tell her to be gentle". She said chiropractic can cause damage to myeloma patients. Good to know! He wants to see her anyway.

Doug's left leg is still quite swollen, but ultrasound shows no clots. He had a heart echo done which is okay. The nephrologist says "we might never know" the cause. Something to keep an eye on, but not worry over.

That's all for now. Attitudes good here.