I’m stuck lying around the house with a bad back [again]. (Fortunately there is a golf tournament to occupy me somewhat.) Don’t know what I did to deserve it, but I’ve found that often to be the case.
So since it’s been over a week since I’ve posted anything, I thought I’d take this opportunity to just ‘ramble’ about a few things that come to mind.
Edie is still on Velcade + Dex maintenance therapy. She switched to every other week, because every week was just getting to be too much, and also started subcutaneous injections of the Velcade instead of the standard infusion. While the research seems to indicate there is no difference between subcutaneous injections and infusions, I’m not so confident. Especially now that her counts have started to rise slightly. That of course could be the result of going to every other week therapy rather than every week.
She gets another blood test on Monday, and has an appointment with her oncologist and another Velcade injection on Tuesday, so we’ll know more after that, and possibly make adjustments.
As for me, I’m the same, except for the bad back that is. At least I hope that’s the case. I am still a little concerned about my IGA and IGM numbers being slightly abnormal, but I think I can wait for my next appointment in May to see if there is a trend developing.
I also received an email earlier in the week, from another MCL’r, that I feel the need to comment on. Based on some of the things this person mentioned, I thought they might have been taking some of my rantings about not rushing into treatment, or the cure being worse than the disease, a little too much to heart.
Fortunately reason prevailed, and whether it was my response, or some other factor, she decided to start treatment with Rituxan as a single agent.
While I am certainly an advocate of not rushing into treatment, I am not, nor have I ever advocated against conventional treatments. I have also never been shy about expressing my opposition to so called “alternative treatments” of any kind, as they are nothing more than a scam designed to separate you from your money.
But when the time comes, when symptoms become overwhelming [even before that in most cases], and especially when quality of life issues become a factor, there is no choice. Conventional therapy is the only way. The only thing being, I would try to start with the least toxic treatment first, and then go for the “big guns” as needed.