By an amazing coincidence, half an hour after I griped about not being allowed to see my test results, they popped up on my screen. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, I guess. Unfortunately, the news is disappointing:
Instead of stabilizing at around 0.5, my M-protein level took a big jump up to 0.67. That’s too bad. I had hoped that the Darzalex by itself would be effective since it has no side effects.¹ But this means that either I’ll have to start up again on the dex or else add something else to the mix. I’ll find out when I see my oncologist in a couple of weeks.
What I’d really like to do is to try starting up the dex again, but using it only once a month on the same day as the rest of the chemo. Unfortunately, my doctor is not fond of “trying” things. He prefers to precisely follow the treatment used in the clinical tests of the Darzalex. But I’ll ask anyway and see what he says. This is the first time that I’ve thought I’d like to get an opinion from a multiple myeloma specialist, but I’m not even sure how to go about that.
¹As opposed to the dex, which saps my energy and ruins my sleep. It’s now been several months since I quit the dex, and it’s amazing how much better I feel.
We have a new comment system! We are now using Coral, from Vox Media, for comments on all new articles. We'd love your feedback.