Newcomer advice

Hi Ddaw,

Welcome to the forum, although I’m really sorry for the reasons you had to join.

It’s early days at the moment, so the best I can say is to take things easy, be kind to yourself and just take things a day at a time. Make sure to contact your team if anything feels strange, often the strongest reaction to the chemo can be in the first cycle as your body wonders what has hit it. And please stick around here, I hope you’ll find some good support. It’s a really tough situation but I’m sure you’ll find people who are experiencing similar, and some like me quite a few years ahead on the path who will try to help out as best we can. 

Nobody would choose to have myeloma, but the treatments are developing all the time, so there’s lots of hope that you can put it back into its box.

Greg

Thanks Greg for your support, its great to know I can get some real life advice from other people going through the same process on this forum. I'm new to the site so I'll check out all the features as i can.

Thanks again,

Hi ddaw73. Know exactly how you are mate. I'm 63 and waiting for a stem cell transplant any minute. My only advice is do what the doctors tell you and stay cool.( not easy,I know) but you'll get through it. Good luck !

Hi Greg. Just joined forum and read your reply to ddaw73. Positive posts like this provide uplift to people with myeloma(like me!) Thank you.

Hi CBSteve, thanks for the reply. I'm only in week one (starting week two tomorrow) so early days for me but I was kind of hoping to avoid the stem cell transplant if I can. I was planning to assess things after the 6 cycles of chemo treatment and make a judgement then. I wish you all the best with your wait, are you going to need a donor?

I'm in the process of joining a local support group which I think will be a great benefit.

Good luck to you as well.

Nope ddaw, don't need a donor,they're using my own cells(autologous). Not aware of a support group in my area but found McMillan very helpful on a wide range of things. Thanks for the reply.

From what I can gather stem cell transplant is optional. I wrestled with the choice but decided to go with it even at my tender age(63)! It buys you more time and the treatments are increasingly improving. At my clinic there are older people in remission for years.