[shelleyb57]

Response To Treatment

by shelleyb57 on Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:29 am

My husband has not responded very well to treatments. His first 8 cycles of treatment were Velcade, Cyclophosphamide & Dex. He got progressively sicker each week until his oncologist had to stop treatment and give his body a rest. During this time, his M protein and Lamda Free Light Chains were slowly coming down. The next course of treatment was Revlimid and Dex. He has just completed 4 cycles of this treatment and his M protein has really come down quickly to even lower than it was at diagnosis. But the thing I don't understand is that his Lamda Free Light Chains have skyrocketed during this same treatment time.

Now his kidneys have started to fail and his kidney doctor wanted to start him on dialysis but my husband has refused. He said that he does not want to spend that much time each week stuck in a chair.

I should also say that he was very sick right from his diagnosis on Jan 31, 2012. For almost a year we hardly left our home except to go to treatments or doctor appointments. He has major bone involvement with lots of back and neck/shoulder pain. His neck can no longer even hold his head up so he basically walks looking at the floor. It's been very hard to see how much he has changed in such a short period of time.

I fear that he is in the end stages of the cancer and that's why his kidneys are failing. Does it make sense that his protein would be responding but his free light chains are not?

[Dave]

Re: Response To Treatment

by Dave on Tue Mar 19, 2013 4:00 am

Hi Shelleyb57,

I feel for what you are going thru as a wife and I know what it's like to be in your husbands position. Without going into my story too much, I would just recommend how important it is to keep the kidney function going. I had to complete 8 hours of dialysis for 5 days straight, followed by another 4 treatments on alternate days. I was a wreck, but my kidneys were completely restored.

Bones do heal and back and neck pain can improve. Don't Give up! Healing takes time....

[Nipon Ginko]

Re: Response To Treatment

by Nipon Ginko on Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:08 pm

Hi Dave thanks for your input -I have had better luck than Shellyb's husband in my treatment processes -I responded well to the drugs (disregarding the disaster of the side effects) but I am now showing poor results on my blood and urine (albumin) tests in regards to my kidneys health - also lots of continued swelling of lower extremity's and other areas - I gather from your post that your kidneys recovered due to the Dia. treatment , if that's a fact it gives some hope that perhaps that won't be be something that goes on till a magic cure for multiple myeloma is found or one pass's on to the land of the Trolls & Harpies .
best regards N.G.

[CWA]

Re: Response To Treatment

by CWA on Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:55 pm

I am a wife and supporter of my newly diagnosed husband. He had pneumonia in December of 2012 and was given erythromycin, augmentin and aleve. This created an allergic reaction in his kidneys (acute nephritis). He was hospitalized on Jan 5, 2013 for kidney failure, and on January 15, 2013 he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He goes to dialysis Mon Wed Fri for four hours...from 6:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. Then he goes to lunch with his friends. We have not given up hope that the kidneys may jump-start again...even though the odds may be against us. I was amazed at the number of dialysis clinics around..and the number people on dialysis. Thank goodness for dialysis. It allows him to live with a fairly good quality of life. We are still in shock at his diagnosis and we are reading and learning as fast as we can. If we can get the cancer under control, our doctors say there is hope for the kidneys ... and even hope for a kidney transplant. We just believe that 'while there is life, there is hope.' He will begin a new regimen of Revlimid, Thalomid, Cytoxin and Dexamethasone tomorrow.