When I was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma five and a half years ago, my initial treatment consisted of induction chemotherapy with vincristine (Oncovin), doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and dexamethasone (Decadron) followed by an autologous stem cell transplant.  I had a good response to the treatment but never quite got into remission.

The course of my disease over the next few years took me through a roller coaster of treatments with Revlimid (lenalidomide), Revlimid with dexamethasone,

When I was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma five and a half years ago, I was told by my local oncologist that the place to go for treatment was the University of Arkansas.  So that was the first stop on my multiple myeloma journey.

I was introduced to the aggressive Arkansas Total Therapy protocol: high dose chemotherapy with multiple active agents, followed by tandem (two back-to-back) stem cell transplants, and then two to three years of maintenance therapy.

The team of …

During the course of my treatments for multiple myeloma over the last few years, I have run the gambit of FDA-approved drugs.

After my initial induction therapy and stem cell transplant and a period of watchful waiting, I started on Revlimid (lenalidomide) and then added dexamethasone (Decadron).

After slowly relapsing on Revlimid/dexamethasone, I was switched to Velcade (bortezomib).   After five months of Velcade, the response was very good, but I had to stop due to the side effects.  …

For three years after my myeloma diagnosis and initial treatment in 2006, I continued to work a fairly full schedule as an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, seeing patients three days a week and doing surgery two days.  However, by design, my days were not nearly as full as before I had gotten sick. 

As I mentioned in my last post, after relapsing on Revlimid (lenalidomide) / dexamethasone (Decadron) two years ago, I started treatment with Velcade …

When I finished with my stem cell transplant in September of 2006, I had achieved a very good partial response and my monoclonal protein level (M-spike) was down from 7.5 at diagnosis to 0.5. My doctor seemed happy, but in truth I was not.  I was disappointed I didn’t achieve a complete response.

In an attempt to reduce stress, I returned to work on a somewhat reduced schedule compared to what I was used to doing before getting sick.

I …

I finished my stem cell transplant in August of 2006.  As I mentioned in my last article, once engrafting of the stem cells takes place, most of the nasty symptoms from the transplant resolve fairly quickly. The lingering symptom was fatigue.

On the bright side, I was home, the worst of the treatment was over, and I was going to make the best of it.

Everyone said, “Don’t fight the fatigue, listen to your body.”  This is true.  If …

After three months of induction chemotherapy with vincristine, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and dexamethasone (Decadron), I was ready for my stem cell transplant.

From the time I was diagnosed, all I kept hearing about was the stem cell transplant.  It seemed like the holy grail of treatment, and even as a physician I was somewhat mystified by the process.

Since I was fairly young (47) and otherwise in good health, there was no question that I was going to …