The Ups and Downs

One of the things about chemo is that it is not a linear ride, but more like a roller-coaster. Yesterday was awful as I was learning to ask for more and more anti-nausea drugs. Today was better as I pro-actively took the drugs before I really needed them. One result was the ability to eat more protein and even some vegetables.

My counts of interest are down to 10% of what they were when I checked into Strong one week ago for the chemo shot. According to the doctors, I need about 3 more days to bottom out and at that point all the damaged white blood cells, platelets and ANCs will be dead, while the infused stem cells will have reached the marrow and will be differenting into the needed components.

Still got my hair! Sooner or later it has got to go. Just waiting on a good moment.

Thanks to all the visitors who have stopped by. It made a difference from being inside my room for the past week.

I don't know what else to post right now. It is time for a walk up and down the hallway to get the blood moving and keep the muscles exercised.

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You always have to re-read and re-read to take in all this info.

Stem cells differentiate into many things, one of which is B cells. Myeloma affects the B-cells and keeps them from forming anti-bodies. Instead they become cancerous and crowd out other cells.

- In myeloma, stem cells are not cancerous. They are still good. The harvesting of the stem cells does not require that they be treated with any cancer killer.
- The melphalan kills the cancerous cells and many other cells.
- The infused stem cells which never had cancer differentiate and replace the killed cells.

Stem cell transplant does not cure POEMS Symdrome or myeloma. It resets the action in the bone marrow by essentially rebooting the system. The best analogy that I can come up with is what the computer technician does when your system is hopelessly infected. They re-install the operating system.

The hope is the cause of the myeloma goes away, but there is no guarantee. It is best hoped that the patient adds years of a qualitive life.

Or to extend the computer analogy, that the system runs well until it becomes infected again.

Interesting ...