End of cycle 2 and myeloma- how come?

Reaching the end of cycle 2 and see my consultant on Thursday. Overall, its been pretty hard work and its left me pretty low and tired- I've been sleeping for Scotland. What I don't like in particular is the way the thalidomide saps me of energy and motivation to do things- its not me!. An email from CS however confirms he went through the same kind of process and he also had to have his dosage of thalidomide reduced to the beginning level of 50 mgs so that he could cope with it. He also reassured me that only two or three days after finishing the treatment and coming off the thalidomide he was back to his usual self. I supoose the bottom line is that if there is some gain being made in terms of the paraprotein level being reduced then its worth it in the long run. We'll see on Thursday. Meantime I've also to see the WGH dentist again as I may have a bit of osteonecrosis to deal with in my jaw. Find out about that on Wednesday.

I also raised some issues about why I got myeloma and one of the factors suggested was pesticide. Don from the US also said that he had had contact with malathion ( as I did working on a fruit farm) though in much smaller quantities than me. CS in his email also pointed to an article which suggested there might be a link with the poliomyelitis vaccination- as he said, he saw it in the Sunday Post so it must be true!. One thing I think we have agreement on is a bit of surprise that no database on our background/life experiences is being kept and that this is maybe a shortcoming in the attempt to locate the causes of myeloma.