Cycle 2 of the four treatment cycles comes to a close this week with the administration of Velcade on Monday and Thursday. Revlimid continues to be dispensed each evening at 10 p.m. Steroids are administered Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Urine collection and blood samples will be delivered and taken at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory this week.

Office visit with my oncologist at Winship Cancer Institute will be Tuesday, January 22, 2013. The m spike which measures protein in the blood is down, 1.2. This is good data going in the right direction. Pain levels are managed with Advil when needed. I am walking on a school track with Mary and Brody at least every other day for a quarter mile. And, I am driving again!

There are two more treatment cycles which are key in lowering the m-spike and getting the stem cells ready for harvesting. It could be that an additional fifth cycle of two weeks’ Velcade/Revlimid will be decided based on lab results.

When lab numbers indicate, the final blasts of chemotherapy will be administered in isolation during the two-week hospital stay at Emory. The harvested stem cells are reinserted for re-population of the long bones’ marrow.

It helps to review the process for myself and interested others, knowing that the cycles of treatment established at Emory have a good track record at sending multiple myeloma into remission .

Mike Green
January 14, 2013

March 2012…last visit to Biltmore Estate…Several of the Biltmore History Group including members of my family are planning a a brief overnight visit to the estate, February 11 and 12, 2013.