Happy (?) New Year

Monday was the beginning of a maintenance cycle and I went to the BMT clinic for lab work, a shot of Velcade and a visit with one of the PAs, but Andrea, the only PA there went home early with flu symptoms so I missed a visit. I asked about a flu shot while I was there Monday and was told that I should have a visit with a PA on Thursday and to ask her about the flu shot. I went to the clinic again this morning for a Velcade shot and asked for copies of my blood work reports for the last month and learned that the marker Dr. Tricot watches (Kappa free light chains) had gone up Monday to 52 mg/dL and had been at 15 mg/dL on Dec. 17, which seemed to please him because it had declined from 55 mg/dL in one month. I don't know whether this increase will concern him, but it didn't seem to concern Andrea because I was told she had looked at my lab report and said that she didn't need to see me. Dr. Tricot's nurse told me that they would fax my lab report to Dr. Tricot, but until I hear from him I should continue on a schedule of 3 consecutive maintenance cycles. She also told me that they will analyze for the Myeloma markers every 2 weeks instead of only at the beginning of each maintenance cycle, so there may be some reason to be concerned. I now have copies of all the lab reports from my first visit in July to the present and the Kappa free light chains seem to fluctuate rather widely, up and down, but with a downward trend. So maybe that will continue. The Doctor did say that the value will not go to zero but it will be less than one at some point. I completely forgot to ask anybody about a flu shot today so that will have to wait until my next visit on January 11.

Emma's leg seems to be healing satisfactorily; we visited the surgeon yesterday and had him look at the scar that marks the incision for the plate and which still seeps a little blood (or serum) and he then had another x-ray taken, which reassured him. He said that the incision is quite wide and will take more time to close and that she should not go back to her aquasize class until it does close, perhaps late in January. He allowed her to bring the x-ray home to show to her friends (and family) and she can keep it until her next visit in one month.