Friday, May 21, 2010

Neuropathy and other notes

I noticed yesterday that for much of the day, I had a barely perceptible tingle in my feet.  I first noticed it around noon and it persisted until I went to bed.  Today, I feel it less, but it is still there.

I wouldn't say it's enough to get me overwrought, but I am starting to get a tiny bit concerned.  I doubt it is from the Revlimid, since I didn't develop neuropathy while on Thalidomide and that's much more likely to cause it.  The more likely culprit, then, is the Velcade.

I am told Velcade-related neuropathy can go away if the Velcade is discontinued.  I am obviously not going to do that, but I might see if they want to dose reduce back to 1mg/m2 from my 1.3.  The higher dose is because of my unfavorable sub-type of the disease, though...so even dose-reducing that could deter me from my progress which I don't want to do.

I visit Little Rock next week for PET, MRI, bone marrow and potentially kyphoplasty on my back.  It should be an interesting few days, as always!   I wasn't originally going to submit to the PET but I confess that I'm interested in getting as much information as possible given that the stray monoclonal light chain wandered into the immunofixation analysis the other day.

Among the questions I want to ask BB about:
- neuropathy
- reimmunization thoughts
- use of polymerase chain reaction test to determine molecular remission

Obviously I'm also keen to see if I have reached "MRI complete remission" yet.

Lastly, I was invited by ASCO (the American Society of Clinical Oncologists) to attend their upcoming conference in June.  I would ***LOVE*** to do this, but my schedule will not permit it.  However I do hope to do the next one.