Hi Everyone
As the title says I am new to this forum (or any forum) and have been managing to find everything I needed in terms of support through the various excellent support documents available both on this site and elsewhere.
I was diagnosed with Myeloma last November and have been on a treatment programme that has seen my Paraproteins drop from 68 down to 6 (possibly less, I am waiting for results from the last blood tests) so everything has gone in the right direction and is seemingly progressing well.
I've had a few setbacks along the way that meant stays in hospital, mainly due to a chest infections that wouldn't go away but otherwise everything has gone "according to plan".
Next week I will have a Stem Cell Harvest and was then programmed to have a High Dose Chemotherapy with Stem Cell replacement shortly after, which theoretically would have been my "final" treatment (for the moment) of course assuming everything went well.
During my last consultation however it was introduced into the conversation that next phase won't now be until August (at the earliest) and that it may involve a different therapy but the consultant didn't have time to discuss what that might be.
Does anyone have any experience of a different "final therapy" as reading around it seems that Stem Cell Replacement is the only one that I can find described in any detail?
Of course it's possible I've missed something when looking for this information - certainly my concentration levels these days are not much better than when I was a toddler! Strange I now walk like a toddler too.....
I have a further meeting with the consultant in a few weeks time and will for sure try and get details on this second option but I am someone who likes to be fully "up to speed" on all the information before the consultation,. so if anyone has any ideas on what other options might be available I would certainly appreciate the information.
Many Thanks
Hi DPR and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am always sorry to see folks joining us. I am Mike and I help out around our various Blood Cancer groups. I don’t have Myeloma but I was diagnosed back in 1999 with a rare, incurable type of NHL Stage 4a so although my Blood Cancer ‘type’ is different I understand the challenges of this journey well and more so as I have had two Allo (donor) Stem Cell Transplants (SCT)
Getting you into a ‘window’ of remission for your Clean Stem Cells to be harvested is very important and at times can take some work to achieve this. In other blood cancers like Lymphoma, Leukaemia…. there are various ‘salvage’ treatments that can be used to open this harvest window.
I have no idea what this ‘other’ treatment may be but let’s see if any of the group members can help…… you may want to contact the Consultant or the departments Specialist Cancer Nurse and ask the question.
When it comes to the SCT process is basically the same regardless the type of blood cancer. We do actually have a dedicated Stem cell transplant support group where you can talk with others who have the SCT ‘T’ shirt.
Always around to help out at any time and I will keep an eye open for you in the SCT group.
