September 13, 2007

I started a curcumin regimen on June 27. I also asked my doc to think about low-dose naltrexone (LDN) as another complementary treatment, and he agreed to check into it. Today’s test results were not terrible, but they do not show much, if any, benefit from nine weeks of curcumin treatment. Here are some numbers:

• Free lambda light chains are down 12%, and

• “Spike” (SPEP) is down 3% to 1.90 g/dL, but

• IgG is UP 12% to 3110 mg/dL, and

• Serum calcium is up to 10.4 mg/dL, which is above the normal range for the first time.

Actual values from key tests are displayed graphically in the charts and numerically in the test result table. At bottom, it appears that the cancer is still advancing slowly and relentlessly. That’s what it does.

Doc and I had quite a discussion today. He really wants to put me on Revlimid right away. I have lots of questions about that, such as:

• Should we hit it easy, shoot for a partial remission and stability, or

• Should we hit it hard, with more drugs, and shoot for a longer-term remission?

• Why Revlimid and not Velcade, when we know that Thalomid (thalidomide), another “IMID” drug, has already failed?

• Why not wait until there are symptoms, as Mayo would do?

• Is the above-normal calcium already a symptom?

We didn’t decide these issues; I put off the decision for another month at least. Meantime he reluctantly consented to prescribe low-dose naltrexone for that period, five weeks actually. I will take that prescription drug, along with the curcumin and perhaps another supplement, for those five weeks and then we will see. In addition, he ordered another x-ray skeletal survey, which I will schedule ASAP.

The doctor believes that time is getting short, looking at a high IgG of 3110. But if that is a problem, it will also show up in other tests, which so far look pretty normal. Or it will show up as lesions in the bones, which we will soon determine. I’m trying to get the right balance here, of risk from the myeloma versus risk from the drugs that treat myeloma.

Meantime, I figure on living life to the fullest. Live one day at a time and make it a masterpiece!