Saturday, March 3, 2012
Transplant Unsuccessful
Well its been some time since my last update but alot has happened. Apparently in July 2011 my protien levels and light chains began to increase but the doctor didnt really tell me until September, the myeloma was not gone, the stem cell transplant did not work. Another transplant at this time would not do anything since the first one was not a sucess. Another option would be a donor bone marrow transplant which would not be covered by Medicare so at this point I remain on weekly Velcade injections - a change from the velcade IV they were giving me and the Revlimid, chemo in a 21 day pill form which costs $8000. a month and weekly decadron 10 every friday which is like a steroid. Apparently my cancer is becoming immune to these drugs so we are just waiting for some new drugs to hit the market, there are some out there which might hit the shelves this year - hopefully. So I go on trying to fight off infections all the time and doing the drug regiment and looking for any other options that may be out there. The fight is still on .....
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Hi, Sharon, I'm so sorry the transplant didn't work. You mentioned Medicare not paying for a donor transplant, so I assume that you're on Medicare. I will be going on Medicare in May. I take 5 mg of Revlimid for 21 days a month as maintenance therapy and pay only a $45 copay. That, of course, will end in May. What Prescription Drug Plan do you have? Is it a Plan D program? How do you afford the Revlimid? Thanks so much, Lovey
ReplyDeleteDo you belong to a MM support group in your area?
ReplyDeleteHi Sharon - this is the first time I've come across your blog. My mm relapsed twice last year. I had an auto SCT in May 2010 and the pp reappeared last February and again in September. I had velcade and doxil from Feb to May and started Revlimid in September which didn't agree with my kidneys and I ended up on dialysis. We were out of current options here (I live in the UK) and had been looking at a donor transplant if my plasma cell content from bone marrow biopsy could be reduced to a manageable level. Even when my PP was at zero in July 11 the plasma cell content was 75% to 80%. By Nov 11 it had gone back up to 90%. In November we tried DT-PACE, something that hadn't been used before at the hospital I go to. The first one was rough but I wasn't particularly well going into it and got an infection and influenza A before I left hospital, the second one wasn't so bad. A bmb in January showed zero plasma cells in the sample! A result we couldn't have dreamed of. I will be having another one shortly to confirm the result. I may now be able to have a donor transplant - although I know this is an issue with you it may be worth seeing if DT-PACE (dexamethasone, thalidomide, doxil, cisplatin, cytoxan, etoposide) would be of any benefit to you. Because of my kidneys (I'm still having dialysis) I did have a smaller dose of some of the drugs (I'd be glad to let you know exactly what I had if you wanted) and due to a major disagreement between me and dexamethasone I had half the dose of that.
ReplyDeleteSorry that went on a bit but I didn't just want to say 'what about DT-PACE' without explaining how I was familiar with it.
Warm wishes - Paula