Better than expected news!!

Had my review of Cycle 1 today. Bear in mind I have found it pretty hard work. However, the good news is that after one cycle of the thalidomide, melphalan, and prednisolone mix, my paraprotein has dropped from 28 to 14. This was completely unexpected but of course well received in the Asquith household and clearly worth the hassle of the last few weeks. I also acknowledge the last few weeks were made more difficult by having to take Dexamethasone all the way through so hope it might all be a bit easier this time.

Cycle 2 however requires that the thalidomide be cranked up a bit and I move from 50mg to 100mg a day so we'll see what that does. Also it appears that the TMP mix has lowered my neutrophils and that throughout the following cycles I might be even more susceptible than usual to infections etc- so it means the old thermometer will be used a lot and I have to alert friends and visitors to this.

Also my history of treatment has been one in which the first cycle usually has very good results followed by a tailing off of any benefit. So Huw my consultant is hopeful we might have three or so good cycles and then the gain might not be worth the pain. But even if my paraprotein didn't drop anymore, today's result means I already should have longer on planet earth.

But great news and completely unexpected.

PS- if interested in seeing how widespread the list of folks are who read the blog- scroll right to the bottom of the page, you'll see a maroon bar and in that bar will be a box- this is my counter. Click on it and you can see how many folks log in, when , even what kind of screen they use! The interesting one for me though under GEO is the number of countries readers come from.