Numbers update...

I've been getting my blood drawn once a week (hard to adjust to not having daily counts, but I'm managing!) at Dr. SH's place, where this journey began back in November. It's funny to think how much I now know about this disease, and my treatment, and how far advanced BB's protocol is relative to the historically standard course of action...

At any rate, my results from May 4th were ready today, so here are the salient points:

1. White blood cells and platelets are normal (no surprise there)

2. Red blood cells remain low, but hemoglobin is at 9.7 so it is steadily creeping up

3. Electrolytes are a little goofy but very close to normal range (sodium is a tiny bit high, potassium and phosphorus a tiny bit low, I'm not gonna worry about them)

4. Cholesterol is back up to 250...although this was not a fasting test so it's probably skewed quite high

5. Liver numbers are still mildly elevated but they appear to be coming down very, very slowly

6. Okay...the important stuff! Protein spike is now at 0.83! IgG is now at 1180! These are very good numbers (in fact, IgG is technically within "normal" range although the M-spike is proof of abnormality), and probably reflect the impact of the four-day course of thalidomide / dex that I was on before having these labs drawn, but I am very hopeful that we'll be in complete remission after the second transplant. In related news, creatinine remains very good (yay kidneys!) and albumin has climbed to over 4, which is great (it was below 2 for a while and that's not good).

In general, a good day at the ol' lab. Sadly, one week until the return to Little Rock. Oh well -- the sooner we commence, the sooner it's over!