The New Normal

Multiple Myeloma, as with any cancer, changes ones life.  Things are never going to be what they used to be.  One soon learns to adapt to the "new normal".  As a small instance, today I am collecting my 24-hour urine sample for tomorrow's visit to the Farber.  So far, I have avoided the mistakes of last month, and I have remembered to collect every piss sample so far.  However, I forgot to get a collection bottle on my last visit to DFCI, so I washed out a half-gallon plastic milk bottle to serve as a substitute.  So far, so good.  Yes, this is the new normal.  But believe me, I'm not complaining, just reporting.

I read some good news on Pat Killingsworth's blog the other day.  Recent results have confirmed that Velcade has a very good response rate as induction therapy for those with high-risk MM (such as my t(4;14)), and it works well as a maintenance therapy.  Since MLN9708 is quite similar to Velcade and I also had Velcade as part of my consolidation therapy, that's pretty good news.  They say the jury is still out on Revlimid maintenance therapy, but previous studies that I have looked at over the past year or so seem to validate Revlimid as a good option for maintenance as well.  I don't know for sure, but I may have just been lucky enough to hit a "sweet spot" in my therapy for my particular risk profile at the right time.  I can only hope so.

I'm still going to the gym 3-4 times a week.  Usually, Gretchen gets up early and prods me to get up and go.  Today, she was sleeping in, so I got up and encouraged her to go.  We both did.  I'm taking that as a good sign that we can team up to keep us both going when one of us is ambivalent.