Cycle 3 Results

I finally got the last of the Cycle 3 test results today. The 24-hour urine analysis came back as "No monoclonal protein detected", which is the same result as last month. That's great news!

However, the serum protein electrophoresis revealed a Gamma M-Spike of 0.10 g/dl. That's also the same result as last cycle. I'm disappointed that it didn't go down, but at least it didn't go up. It is still well below the initial value of 0.29 g/dl before I started the clinical trial. This will be an important parameter to track as I continue this protocol. Overall, I'm responding quite well to this clinical trial.

As for my high Vitamin B12 issue, I now realize that I overreacted to that. You know how it goes when you tell someone "It hurts when I do this", and their response is, "Then don't do that anymore"? That sort of happened to me with the B12 thing. 

I said in my last post that I wasn't going to bother Dr. Richardson with this, but I did email the trial coordinator, Alice, about it. She asked if I was taking Vitamin B12 pills, and I acknowledged that I had been. She suggested that I stop taking them (duh!) and we can check the levels again in 3 months. 

The fact that she wasn't alarmed about my high B12 and didn't suggest doing anything about it shows that this whole issue is a big nothing burger! I need to chill out a little bit about some of these test results.  Oh, and I have some extra Vitamin B12 pills if anyone needs some.

I came across a video of Dr. Richardson discussing the results of this clinical trial after the ASH Symposium in December. It's somewhat technical, but if you are interested, here is the link:

Mezi Combo Therapy for Relapsed Myeloma

These results are pretty spectacular! Considering how well 90% of us patients are doing on the C3 arm of this trial, maybe there's another thing I should be more relaxed about, which is my amp(1q) cytogenetic glitch. Yes, it's a high risk, but I've always been high risk, and here I am 13 years later, still alive and kicking. So as long as I continue to respond well to this therapy, then it's all good!