Skip to main content

Cycle 2 Begins

By
Matt has officially begun Cycle 2.  He is actually already half way through his treatments for this cycle.  He went in on Friday and met with the doctor in addition to receiving his injection.  The doctor was once again happy with the response so far.  They drew blood, as they normally do, to look at his levels as well as look at his IGG levels.  The IGG levels are how they plan to monitor how the cancer cells are responding to treatment.  Although the IGG proteins are not the cancer cells themselves (his cancer cells stay in the bone marrow), they are indicative of the cancer cell production in his blood.  We, of course, hope to see that number decrease with each cycle of chemotherapy.  The results of that test will be given this coming Friday when Matt meets with his doctor again.  

As far as the results we did get, all are continuing to look great.  His hemoglobin is remaining constant at a 9.2 and Matt's nephrologist was happy with this number.  His creatinine (the toxins in his blood) is continuing to drop and is now at a 2.01.  The creatinine level is how the doctors measure kidney function.  I spoke with Ogb, Matt's nephrologist, over the weekend and he estimated that his kidneys are now functioning around 40% and expects that to continue to increase.  At one point, Matt's kidneys were functioning as low as 10-12%.  Ogb was hopeful that they would eventually function close to normally again.  

Matt seems to be feeling pretty good overall.  I think the week off really helped him reenergize and his body heal.  Matt's sister, Caroline, and her boyfriend Dave flew in on Thursday night to surprise Matt for his birthday.  So after Matt's treatment on Friday we were able to run some errands and hang out for the evening.  On Saturday Matt got up and went for a nice 5 mile bike ride.  He's slowly building up some stamina and feels well enough to exercise about once or twice a week.  The doctor suggested very low impact exercise because of the lesions on his bones, so biking is a great choice.  We then went out for a nice dinner to celebrate Matt's birthday.  Sunday we all went to Top Golf and saw some friends while playing some friendly games of golf.   Matt was even able to enjoy (well kind of, despite the Bears best effort) some time with friends at the bar watching the Bears / Packers game.  Both Matt's sister and I were equally impressed with the amount of energy he seemed to have the entire weekend.  

Matt will go back again this coming Friday for his next treatment and a visit from the doctor.  His last treatment for this cycle will be a week from today then another week of rest before Cycle 3 begins.  

Currently, the doctors are estimating that it will be about 4-6 cycles before he is ready for his first bone marrow transplant.  We are working with Matt's current doctors to get transferred over to the University of Chicago for both treatment and transplant as they have a Multiple Myeloma Specialist on staff and are much more familiar with bone marrow transplants.  We are hoping that will be approved soon so we can begin to meet with the transplant team who will determine when is the best time for Matt to undergo his first self-donated bone marrow transplant. 

As always, I want to thank everyone for their unwavering support.  Matt and I are left speechless so often by the amazing amount of texts, calls, and gifts that you all have given us.  We are so thankful for everything you all have done.  There is no way to ever repay you for the love and comfort you have provided us.  We love you all dearly.

Continue to pray/dream/hope/chant that Matt continues to respond well to treatment so that we can beat this thing!

All our love,
Matt and Mandy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Beginning

By
It's Probably Just a Virus "It's only a virus," is what we kept thinking and hearing over the past few weeks.  By this time, Matt hadn't been feeling very well for 2.5 weeks.  He had suffered from fatigue, sleepiness, and some nausea.  He hadn't drank coffee in over 2 weeks and eating ice cream was out of the question.  After 2 weeks of this "virus" Matt decided to make an appointment with his primary care doctor on Tuesday, August 11th.  They decided to draw some blood and take a urine sample and scheduled a follow up appointment two days later.  When he went in for the follow up appointment they informed him that his kidneys were essentially failing and were only functioning at 10-12%.  They immediately directed him to a nephrologist who scheduled a kidney biopsy for the following Monday. Fast forward a day and his symptoms of fatigue and sleepiness worsened to the point that a 2 hour nap was absolutely mandatory yet he still couldn't ga...
5 comments
Read more

Boring. It's Very, Very Boring.

By
 The title sums up the past two days.  Boring.  But I will be the first to say, with a hospital stay - boring is great.  Matt and I headed down to the hospital yesterday morning nice and early so he could get checked in by 7:00am.  They drew some labs and sent him down to surgery to place his central line. While this process was not complex, it took for-ev-er.  By 11:30 or so he was finally headed back up to the floor where he'd begin his first chemo infusion.  However, we soon discovered that he'd be getting 2 hours of pre-hydration and 2 hours post-hydration.  So the hour long chemo was really 5 with all the extra stuff.  But in Matt's words "I'm not going anywhere."  The rest of the day continued to be uneventful.  Matt got into his room where he will spend the next 7-10 days and his dad was able to visit in the afternoon. After a good nights sleep by all, I headed back down this morning and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a few laps...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Plan

By
We have a plan.  Thank goodness. Matt and I went down to U of C today and, after waiting for far too long, met with Dr. J.  He informed us that Matt's light chains have not gone down as much as they would have liked and because of that, they don't believe transplant is the best option.  The main reason for this is that the drug they give Matt to wipe his immune system is something called Malphalan, and it's in the same category as the Cytoxin he just received.  Meaning there's a high possibility that it wouldn't work as well as they need it to prior to transplant.  I also learned today that both of those drugs are in the same class as VDPACE, which is the infusion Matt received before our initial plan of a donor transplant in 2021.   Which, of course, didn't work then either.  So I think it's safe to say, that category of drugs is essentially useless to Matt.  So, we pivot. The new course of action is to do a carT called ciltacel.  This ...
Post a Comment
Read more