Probably Good News
After 48 cycles on the sweet little pill called pomalidomide, my cancer markers are about the same as last month. IgG is higher than I would like to see it, at 1280 mg/dL, but it didn't jump up again, it actually dropped slightly. M-spike stayed still at 1.1 g/dL. So the cancer still appears to be stable. Dr. LH did mention that stress (3 marathons in 3 weeks?) could contribute to increased IgG, and I know that I have a tooth that is starting to go bad, so those are reasons why IgG might be a little higher than expected.

Lambda light chains dropped a bit, too, while kappa light chains remained the same. I'm not sure that means anything, except it can't be bad.

Calcium has bounced around in recent months, and it's back up again. We discussed doing a skeletal survey, to check for bone lesions, but Dr. LH said that if the calcium is coming from bone lesions, it isn't likely to go down again next month. So we'll hold off for a month and see. She suggested that better hydration might improve the calcium numbers, and I think she's right - I know that I don't drink enough water. I need to figure out some easy way to fit proper hydration into my life so that it happens automatically. Yeah.

I haven't been blogging here much lately, because we three have been on the road a lot, but we're going to the ASH Conference in December and I hope to blog several times while there.

Some Current Test Results:

Test		Aug 25		Sep 22		Oct 19		Nov 17		Remarks
M-spike g/dL		1.1		1.0		1.1		1.1		\ Tumor marker
IgG mg/dL		1150		1020		1310		1280		/ Tumor marker
Lambda mg/dL		2.25		2.49		2.75		2.12		L Free light chains
Calcium mg/dL		10.5		10.0		10.0		10.3		OK
Creatinine mg/dL		1.1		0.9		1.1		1.1		Kidney, OK
HGB g/dL		14.7		14.9		14.6		15.0		Hemoglobin, OK
RBC M/uL		4.08		4.09		4.07		4.18		Red cells, low
WBC K/uL		3.8		6.2		4.8		5.3		White cells, normal
ANC K/uL		1.40		2.60		2.30		1.70		Neutrophils, normal

Related Links:

My Myeloma		A discussion of my myeloma, not very technical.
My Treatment History		Not technical.
My Test Charts		Graphic displays of several key test results over time.
My Test Result Table		Somewhat technical. Best with a wide browser window.
My Supplement Regimen		With links to where I buy them.