Living the New Normal

Rebecca has been having some struggles since coming home from the hospital on 17 Dec. She is still having a few memory problems. We have not noticed any more brain seizures. We did have an appointment with the neurologist mid January. They took an EEG for a baseline. It must not have shown anything because the technician let us leave after she took 20 minutes of recording. We have not heard anything from them. We have an appointment on the 21st of February with them.


The neurologist did wean her off one of the three seizure drugs. Now she is taking 1500 mg, twice a day, of Keppra and 150 mg, three time a day, of Dilantin. She does not appear to be having any side effects from these drugs.

She started her cycle of Melphalan on 14 January. Ten mg/day for four days. Twenty mg Dex one day a week for 4 weeks. It seems about a week after she takes the Melphalan she has stomach problems and bowel movement problems. She will have a small bowel movement in her sleep and the consistency is soft and sticky. It is difficult to clean up. This can happen 5 to 10 times a day. This all of a sudden stopped two days ago after she had a normal bowel movement. We are wondering if the Melphalan is causing the mucus lining of the stomach to give way and is causing the bowel movements to have this consistency.

The back pain has been persistent and getting worse. She has increased her amount of oxycotin to try to get some relief.

Here are some of her lab results from 1/27/2011:

WBC = 3.2 (4.8 - 10.8)
RBC = 2.95 (4.2 - 5.4)
HGB = 10.1 (12.0 - 16.0)
PLT = 111 (130 - 400)

Creatinine = 1.4 (0.4 – 1.1)
BUN = 16 (6-20)
Calcium = 8.1 (8.6 – 10.2)
GFR = 38 (>60)
Albumin = 3.4 (3.2 – 4.8)

1/14/2011
IgG 650 mg/dl (700 - 1600
IgA 90 mg/dl (70 - 400)
IgM 27 mg/dl (40 - 230)
IEP - No monoclonal band identified.

Lambda Free Light Chains 42.7 mg/l (5.71 – 26.3)
Kappa Free Light Chains 8.6 mg/l (3.3 - 19.4)
Kappa/Lambda Ratio 0.20 (0.26 – 1.65)