1/3/2013 - Powerful Prayer and Amazing News

I don't want to do too many updates too close together, but we just got some amazing news today that I've got to share...  for God's glory!  According to what the experts were expecting, who work with hundreds and hundreds of myeloma patients constantly (I mean seriously, they are myeloma doctors, that's all they do), my bloodwork results today are nothing shy of miraculous as far as I'm concerned.  I could be surprised, or not surprised, if the possibility of divine intervention doesn't come up talking with the experts about this, but I am very interested to find out...  so let me tell you what we were expecting to see today, according to my local doctor, and the two myeloma doctors from U-Penn Hershey and U-Penn Philly.

 

A little history to set the stage:

My myeloma presents itself as certain proteins present in my blood, and the tumor (plasmacytoma) in my vertebrae.  The tumor was easily found because it shows up on x-rays, CAT scans and MRIs.  It was treated pretty easily with radiation because of the size and location, and we're over that hump already.  The myeloma is a different animal because unless they suck out and test every bit of my bone marrow, they don't really know how much of my bone marrow is cancerous.  It is not distributed evenly throughout, so a bone marrow biopsy could truthfully give a 0% cancer cell result, or a 50% cancer cell result depending on if they hit a pocket of cancer cells with the biopsy needle or not.  So...  they use cancer markers, which are very good for myeloma, to tell if cancer is present because the cancerous cells produce these proteins that go into my blood and can easily be measured.  Mine happen to produce Kappa Light Chain Proteins (as opposed to Lambda ones).  Whereas a normal person would have about 1.0 mg/dL (or between 0.3 and 1.9 mg/dL), mine were much higher.  Along with finding 5-6% cancerous cells in my bone marrow biopsy, that is how I was diagnosed with myeloma.  Since all (and I mean all) other indications that myeloma could present itself with are absolutely normal in all the tests they have done, the Kappa protein level is what they use (and is actually better than a biopsy) to track the presence, activity and aggressiveness of the cancer.  And now, you are an expert too :)

 

Leading up to today:

10/14/2012 : Kappa level of 754 mg/dL

10/16/2012 : Bone marrow biopsy, 5-6% cancerous cells

11/08/2012 : Kappa level in 800's mg/dL

12/04/2012 : Kappa level of 1310 mg/dL (large jump, level

                     pretty high and consistent with other patients

                     with kidney failure on dialysis.  Though my

                     kidneys were functioning perfectly according

                     to their tests)

 

Expert expectations:

After meeting with both myeloma doctors for a Bone Marrow Transplant Consultation, and other research I had looked up on clinical trials that have been documented, the effects of the chemo drug treatments usually show up 6 - 8 weeks after treatment starts (I am on a 4 week cycle regiment).  So they told us not to expect to see the numbers to go down after the first cycle, and they may still go up before seeing results in the second or third cycle.  Not every drug works for everyone, in which case it wouldn't be effective at all and the numbers would continue to go up instead of slowing or going down after the second or third cycle.  I was prescribed four cycles, but if more were necessary at the end of four, we could possibly go five or six.  Remission would be considered achieved when my Kappa level dropped to half of the highest number they found previously, so starting my treatment, we were shooting for something below 650 mg/dL unless it came back higher after my first cycle, and they anticipated that it would take four cycles to get there.

 

Today's results:

Well here's what the doctor said when I went in to see her, "Numbers are fabulous... they're freaking amazing actually... you went from 1,310 to 1.2."  And after I cleared up that she actually said 1.2, I was floored... which I shouldn't have been, since hundreds of people are praying for me and I believe that God does amazing things, miraculous things, to let the world know He's there and He's the One.  The doctor was very surprised as well, but wants to stay the course of treatment until she gets some feedback from her colleagues and the myeloma experts we met with.  We also really want to talk to the experts with the news and see what their take is on this amazing news.

 

What we need:  Wisdom.  Studying the book of James in Sunday School is very appropriate and timely, since it talks much about wisdom.  We would appreciate prayers for wisdom over the next few weeks as well.  We have a lot of big decisions to consider, and with this recent development, we may be under a little more pressure to make them before we thought we had to.

 

Thank you, thank you, for all your prayers... for those that were specifically for today’s results, for those for my family and all they are going through because of everything happening to me, for those for my strength of body and spirit, and for those I don't even know about that lift me up every day.  Today was healing in more than just my body...  I needed a day like today, and my family did too...  my cheeks hurt from smiling so hard and my spirit was soaring.  Since I took my steroids today, and my brain was going about a bazillion times faster than normal (a little like what I would expect ADD to be like), and I was given utterly amazing news, I don't know when I've felt more giddy and excited.

 

What a great day!  I pray everyone has days like these J…

Brady