Rebecca started taking the 10 mg/day of melphalan two weeks ago. She is also taking 20 mg/day of Dex once a week for four weeks. She is not doing well. She is having nausea and considerable pain in the stomach. She has two doses of Dex left starting tomorrow. I would recommend she not take it.
We go to the doctor in a week. We will see how much her blood counts have been impacted by the chemo. She will also have a Freelite test. It takes about a week to get the results back from that test.
I still think she should take a couple of months off from chemo and see what the myeloma does. Some people live with the effects of the myeloma better than the effects of the chemo.
Here are some of her lab results from 4/08/2011:
WBC = 3.5 (4.8 - 10.8)
RBC = 3.0 (4.2 - 5.4)
HGB = 10.5 (12.0 - 16.0)
PLT = 91 (130 - 400)
17 years
1 month ago
Jerry: Bob has never had any stomach problems because of the Dex. In fact, other than causing his Blood Sugar to go sky-high it posed no issues. It also helped his bone pain.
ReplyDeleteIs Rebecca taking anything else (Celebrex, for ex.)?
Her lab numbers look pretty good. Hope things go well, when she sees her Onc.
Blessings,
Sarah
Sarah, thanks for responding. Good for Bob that he didn't have any negative effects from the Dex. Many patents have difficulty with this drug. She is not taking Celebrex. Mainly the high dose of oxy. She takes a stool softener and Miralax. Jerry
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