We met with Dr. Peterson on Friday, Patty had a strange feeling about why we were meeting with him instead of someone else since he is the head of the BMT unit and I guess she was kind of right.
Dr. Peterson said that because it was difficult for me to get high stem cell collection numbers and because some of my myeloma markers weren't as low as he was hoping and because it has now been 5-6 weeks since I was on Revlimid he talked to us about changing the protocol to interject some different procedures and medicines before I get back to the collection process, so here is the current plan.
On Tuesday I will be admitted to the hospital to be given Cytoxan (a chemotherapy) intravenously so they can monitor me and then after about 5-6 days they will start with the Neupogen and another growth agent to get the stem cells loosened up and ready for collection, then they will monitor me to see when the numbers are high enough to begin the collection and I'll be back to lying on my back for 4 hours every day until they get the rest of the stem cells we are looking for. The reason for the Cytoxan is because the way Dr. Peterson explained it, it creates a spring board effect for the stem cells, the body gets beat down but with the Neupogen and other growth factors it bounces back stronger and with higher numbers.
Dr. Peterson said that it has been his experience that changing to this protocol has shown in other patients to give us a better chance at a significantly longer period of remission, so it may take an extra week or two, but I'll trade that for more years of remission on the back end.
I'll have to enter the bubble boy period a little sooner with this protocol, but since I'm boring and don't go anywhere anyway it won't be too big of a pain for me, I'll have to learn to wear the heppa mask when we go out amongst the population.
We've really enjoyed having Amanda and Ryan up to visit us this weekend, we got to give Ryan his initiation to IKEA on Saturday and then they went out last night with one of his old Missionary Companions. They will be traveling back to Vegas tomorrow (Monday).
I'll write later this week and give a report on the status of my hair and anything else that comes to mind at the time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment