Crawling out of the Last Ditch

Click on graph for a larger version.

I may be on this planet a while longer! Rationally, I knew last week's leveling off meant I was responding, but still my pulse was racing and my hands shaking as I tore open the envelope with the lab results. A drop in the key number from 132 to 85.5 is a wonderful thing to behold! Another thing I look for is how the curves fit together: notice that they are all trending downward (the B2M doesn't count because it wasn't measured earlier). When all the curves are heading the same way, that's confirmation. Hallelujah!

Tomorrow begins another cycle of bendamustine and dexamethasone. Maybe it won't be necessary to increase the dose, which would please me.

A wonderful thing about alkylating agent therapy, which has all but gone out of fashion except for the very old, is that, if it works well, the numbers can crash on their own a few weeks down the road even if therapy is abruptly halted.

Alkylating agents often produce remissions or plateaus. In remission, the numbers stay down without treatment for long periods of time, even years. In this case, considering my history, I have no idea what to expect. Assuming I reach complete remission — which is one hell of an assumption at this point — will we transplant right away, because we can, or will we wait until the first hint of progression, which could be far into the future?

As soon as I know, you'll know! :-)