tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5398956932575790.post2004112284553566512..comments2024-01-23T21:37:27.869-08:00Comments on Nick's Myeloma Blog: Good enough for Michael Jackson...plus some questionsNickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09733312143898687572noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5398956932575790.post-7760123344838051872009-07-04T14:40:26.116-07:002009-07-04T14:40:26.116-07:00Despite the apparent setbacks, I'm still floor...Despite the apparent setbacks, I'm still floored by how well your treatment has been going. I think it's clear from what you've written that while CR is going to take more work than predicted not long ago, it's an inevitability. Hopefully BB is telling you pretty much the same thing.<br /><br />When I was 10-12 years old, I had lucid nightmares that I couldn't get out of. I remember reflecting in the middle of one that I *know* I'm going to get out of here eventually, that's a given, but when?! How much more of this am I going to have to put up with? An unpleasant dream is hardly cancer, and maybe my analogy is grossly inappropriate, but hopefully it helps illustrate that getting through this successfully is a question of when, not if.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5398956932575790.post-9048573218930390782009-07-03T19:20:29.774-07:002009-07-03T19:20:29.774-07:00TK -
I know your first two questions are at least...TK -<br /><br />I know your first two questions are at least partially rhetorical, but I nonetheless do have answers for them. :)<br /><br />Complete remission is defined as the doctors being unable to find any trace of the disease. This is the state which Dr. SH told me that he would be 90% likely to put me in with an induction regimen of thalidomide and dex. As the ability of medicine to measure the disease has improved, the definition of complete remission has become more stringent. Your husband, to the extent he had elevated light chains, was never in complete remission. Although he was certainly with a very good partial remission if the M-spike was not detectable.<br /><br />Your second question can be answered several ways, but my favorite definition is that "cure means growing old and dying of something else." As SH pointed out to me the other day, if somebody had Leukemia, lived another forty years, died of something else, and there were leukemic cells in the blood at the time of death, we he/she cured? I was call this a "functional cure", certainly. But this is not the type of cure that I came to Arkansas for. I came to Arkansas, and underwent the most aggressive possible treatment for newly-diagnosed Myeloma (short of a full-blown allogeneic transplant), in order to have all traces of the disease eradicated. Gone, and never to return. So anything short of that is going to be a disappointment -- both to me, and to BB, who joking said in my second meeting with him that if I wasn't cured he was going to be extremely "pissed off" at me. :)<br /><br />I hope your husband is continuing to do well and that he will have a functional cure if not an out-and-out eradication of all traces of the disease. Thank you for your comment!Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09733312143898687572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5398956932575790.post-509001344367720172009-07-03T15:36:01.407-07:002009-07-03T15:36:01.407-07:00What defines complete remission? What defines &quo...What defines complete remission? What defines "cure"?<br /><br />My husband had "no detectable M-spike" for about three years on thalidomide and dex with great quality of life. He worked full time as a fifth grade teacher. BUT..that was before freelite was done routinely, do who knows if he was truly free of abnormal protein? (IgG was normal).<br /><br />He also achieved "no detectable M-spike" with Revlimid for almost a year, but never had a normal freelite.<br /><br />He had two transplants one autologous in 2001 and MUD allo in 2005...neither gave him CR.<br /><br />I'll look forward to the answers you get from BB and I hope that you get your cure, and if not, may you have years of stability at 0.3.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com