Good News Again

Stable: Since April of 2016 my treatment regimen has been Pomalyst (pomalidomide) and Darzalex (daratumumab), with dexamethasone in the early months. That combination brought my IgG and M-Spike down to the lowest levels seen since diagnosis 14 years ago. M-Spike has not been above 0.5 g/dL since August 2016, and it was 0.5 again last Tuesday. IgG was 536 mg/dL, about where it has been for more than a year. This is wonderful. The Darzalex protocol (with Pomalyst) calls for infusions once per week for 8 doses, then every other week for 8 more, and finally once per month " until disease progression. " So far so good. Darzalex is an infusion that takes several hours, but I get a blood draw, then a visit with the hematologist, and finally the infusion, and I ' m still out soon after noon. Some people bring a book to read - I bring my laptop and it ' s no problem at all. I take it easy for the rest of the day, and life is back to normal the next day. Darzalex is given with some prednisone (or dexamethasone) to reduce the likelihood of an infusion reaction, and I do feel some side effects from that steroid, but none from the Darzalex. Life is good. 28 Infusions of so far - I wonder what my life would have been like without that potent, innovative new medication. Pomalyst has been part of my treatment regimen, 2 mg daily, for all but one of the last nine years. For the past two months my doc and I have tried cutting that to 2 mg ...
Source: Myeloma Hope - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: acid reflux daratumumab Darzalex GERD PET scan pomalidomide Pomalyst thyroid Source Type: blogs