Friday, July 19, 2013

Only a false alarm. Immunofixation negative!

So I saw my Dr. GD out here on Tuesday, and explained to him I was uneasy about the immunifixation test.  He didn't seem to get the gravity of my concern -- deep down, he still thinks it's unlikely that I'm cured so for him, seeing a return of monoclonal protein is almost expected, just a matter of when.  I explained to him that I'm going after something different, and he said he understood...but I'm not sure he did.

Anyhow, he ordered a battery of additional tests, and I had them draw some blood to send to Arkansas as well.  I'm waiting for their results, but the local lab came back with "normal pattern, no monoclonal proteins detected" under the immunofixation test.

So I'll chalk this up to either a false positive, the oligoclonal noise that BB expects, or possibly my immune system ramping up in response to a potential cold that I may have been fighting off.  Didn't feel that bad although I had a tickle in my throat and my WBC went up to 5.8, which for me is high (it usually is around 4).  WBC will be recovering now that I'm tapering off my Velcade and not on Revlimid any longer, so that could also be the cause.

In any case, until I hear otherwise, I remain in profound remission and hopefully am cured.  Still waiting for those pesky pits in my spine to resolve but we'll see how those are on imaging in September.

I may or may not share some information about a patient I've recently become friends with who was in the care of JB (the anti-transplant guy) and had unsatisfactory results...but for now, accentuate the positive, which is to say, the test is negative.  :)

Have an excellent weekend, all.