Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Hmm...partial answers from Dr. FVR from UAMS

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So I was on this panel today with Dr. Van Rhee, who did an admirable job of explaining the total therapy philosophy. I told him I was a fe...
3 comments:
Friday, December 13, 2013

Myeloma panel with Dr. van Rhee of UAMS next Monday

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Next Monday I am participating as a patient panelist on another Cure Talk call, hosted by the wonderful Priya Menon and the Cure Talk organi...
1 comment:
Wednesday, December 11, 2013

No longer suffering from chemo brain

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I went to a neurological oncologist to get a "new baseline" for my cognitive abilities.  I wanted to make sure that I had survived...
Thursday, November 28, 2013

Enough already! Or, be thankful and hugs your kids.

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So here I am, busy not dying from cancer, when I almost died from an auto accident. Near as I can tell (because I couldn't see anythin...
3 comments:
Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Past and future Myeloma panels

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Hello folks. I had the opportunity to participate in another Myeloma Panel hosted by Cure Talk and the wonderful Priya Menon.  Last week...
1 comment:
Tuesday, November 19, 2013

More research on the new protein

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As I suspected, Mayo was not willing to let me have a phone conversation about this particular topic.  So rather than contemplate flying to ...
Monday, November 18, 2013

New energy to get to the bottom of this new M protein

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Howdy folks. So I got my monthly tests back last week and saw that "faint monoclonal lambda light chain" present under IFE.  Sti...
2 comments:
Thursday, November 14, 2013

Well, well, well...five years passes.

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Yesterday was the five year anniversary of my diagnosis. I had had my bloodwork come back and the doctor had said that "everything is...
4 comments:
Thursday, November 7, 2013

Five years ago today, my first detailed blood test for Myeloma

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I remember going to the hematologist, who had told me that I could have MGUS or Myeloma but that it was very unlikely that somebody my age w...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Five years...the first of several posts on the topic

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I'm sitting at my desk right now.  It's a sunny October day in southern California and the sun in streaming in.  The desk is a pipe ...
Monday, October 21, 2013

Interesting publication on benefits of transplant

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I rarely re-post other articles -- there are other blogs for that sort of thing.  But this one struck me as important. There has been cons...
2 comments:
Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The Strep That Wouldn't Die, and other stories. Or other story. Or question, really.

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So after being symptom free for a few days I woke up yesterday with a painful sore throat again.  Took a Vicodin immediately, and a Tamiflu...
5 comments:
Wednesday, October 2, 2013

How a simple cold turns into hell with a compromised immune system

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Hello friends. So there's been a little bug going around.  Seems some people have a sore throat which then turns into a cold in some p...
5 comments:
Thursday, September 19, 2013

An idiot's guide to cytogenetic abnormalities.

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This will be a curious post in some ways, because it will provide partial answers and half-truths.  Not in the sense that I'm keeping an...
Wednesday, September 18, 2013

An update, with help from a fellow patient

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I have had the good fortune to connect with two fellow MM sufferers on a couple of different topics recently and would like to acknowledge b...
2 comments:
Monday, September 16, 2013

From the Doctor's mouth...

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Every time I think I don't need to worry, I find more to worry about. In the wake of last week's little goof-up with the remission...
Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Talk about false alarms! What a day I had yesterday...

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Regular readers will know I encourage patients to learn as much as they can about their disease and their treatment.  This is, generally, a ...
3 comments:
Monday, September 9, 2013

Ruminations on last weeks' tests

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I try not to overthink all this stuff, really, but it's a fine line between wanting to know everything I can about my condition and the ...
2 comments:
Saturday, September 7, 2013

An update: the good, the bad, and the ugly...

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Clint Eastwood: * My MRD test (the most sensitive marrow test they have) tested more than twice as many cells as last time, owing to a bet...
7 comments:
Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Concern allayed

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I had the pleasure of having dinner (and wine!!!) with BB, his lovely wife, his irrepressible chief of staff BJ and a colleague of theirs wh...
1 comment:
Tuesday, September 3, 2013

An unnerving update from Arkansas

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I have been in Little Rock for about 16 hours, and already managed to get my pizza fix in from the always-delicious Dam Goode Pies. Sadly,...
1 comment:
Wednesday, July 24, 2013

When does a negative test not feel so negative?

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When instead of saying "the original protein cannot be detected", as most of my tests from Arkansas have said, it comes back ...
6 comments:
Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Curetalk panel with Dr. Kumar from Mayo Clinic...any questions?

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Hello folks. I've participated in a number of panels over the last year with various Myeloma specialists.  Thursday of this week at 7P...
1 comment:
Friday, July 19, 2013

Only a false alarm. Immunofixation negative!

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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 grav...
Monday, July 8, 2013

Incomplete feedback from a couple of doctors on my labs

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So in the wake of my alarming little reappearance of the word "monoclonal" on my labs the other day, I did a little inquiring. B...
Thursday, July 4, 2013

Another false alarm?

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The Iron Law of Oligarchy. I remember literally nothing else about a class I took in comparative political structures of developing nation...