Friday, May 13, 2011

Another Milestone- Goodbye Thalidomide..... Goodbye Coumadin!

We got some wonderful news at our Tulane Cancer Center yesterday.  Dom had to have his monthly Zometa infusion.  He mentioned to our Nurse Practitioner that his neuropathy had slowly spread up to mid calf/shin in the past 2 weeks.  Nothing serious, just wanted to give them a heads-up that he was feeling slightly numb.

Much to our delight, they conferred with Dr. Safah who told him to stop the Thalidomide.  (As well as the Coumadin)  Dom was scheduled to go off of the "poison" in July, which will be his 2 year post transplant anniversary.....aka his Second Birthday.  (I'm dreading going through his "terrible twos"  LOL )

His numbers continue to increase, too.  Thus, she felt no trepidation about stopping the Thalidomide.  Hurrah for The Dominic!

So now, we're just looking at his monthly infusion of Zometa!        ZOMETA INFO  
"Most multiple myeloma patients develop bone disease, which can cause bone fractures that are extremely painful and debilitating. The current gold standard for treating myeloma bone disease is bisphosphonates, a class of drugs that slow the breakdown of bone, thereby reducing the number of fractures."

HCT:    35.7
WBC:   5.4
ANC:    3000
PLATELET:  231

3 comments:

Sandy said...

That is truly wonderful news, you two!

But I wish you would read Margaret's post about the concerns for using zometa over increasing real calcium and other natural bone-building elements...

It is so encouraging to read about successes with STCs and so far so good for my relative with the STC as well.

And by the way, that is an awesome picture of your sweetie in that fashion-flair hat!

Anonymous said...

Dom will be flattered, my friend! I can picture him blushing as I post.

I'll have to look for Margaret's post... and discuss it with the good doctor. Thanks for the kind wishes, honey!

Nan

Anonymous said...

Yay on getting to ditch some meds. :D