Skip to main content

Update

17 months
76 weeks
531 days

That's how long it's been since the words Multiple Myeloma entered our vocabulary and daily lives.  And yesterday was the day we could officially say goodbye to the very last, detectible piece of Multiple Myeloma: Matt's M-Spike level.  While we had received amazing news back in September that Matt's most recent bone marrow biopsy showed no evidence of disease, his blood was still holding on to a small amount of the m-proteins, the bi-product of his cancer.  The doctors weren't worried about this small trace of protein and expected it to drop off within a few months, assuring us they viewed it as basically zero. However, that minuscule amount of m-protein floating around was just enough to hold our full relief at bay.  But yesterday afternoon Matt received confirmation that the final, detectible piece of cancer in his blood had officially hit zero.  IT IS GONE!  So after 531 days of fighting this awful disease, Matt has finally and officially won!!

We can't even begin to thank everyone for all of their love and support over this past year and a half.  While we spent the last 17 months doing our best to keep our heads above water, we realize we didn't get thank you cards out to very many people (actually, no one).  So please accept our apologies for not formalizing our thank you's but please know that we are forever grateful for everything you all have done.

All our love,
Matt & Mandy








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Beginning

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...

Boring. It's Very, Very Boring.

 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...

The New Plan

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 ...