Well, her M-spike is at 1.0 lately which I gather isn’t ideal. They chose the treatment regimen they did because apparently some other regimen would mean that a transplant would not be feasible (I don’t recall whether they were considering auto or donor).
Is Revlimid a problem for the father? I honestly don’t know - the horror stories from the 60s / 70s were when the mother took it, but if it’s genetic damage that makes sense. I guess making a deposit at the sperm bank isn’t / wasn’t an option?
Bitchin’! (The transplant, not the cancer part.) Best wishes for a speedy recovery! 
Well not with that attitude they won’t. I’m sure you have beautiful marrow cells that lots of people want 
Just kiddin’, thanks for the answer! And, as others have said: the future’s so awesome to live in. To infinity and beyond! (After WWII my great-grandfather’s catchphrase was “onwards to the year 2000!” He would be so thrilled to know this is possible.)
I might register, it does seem like a very important thing. But then, if they needed any of my beautiful marrow it would be a really huge procedure, wouldn’t it? Or not anymore? I remember a friend gave marrow to her sister when she had leukemia, years ago. It was pretty full on, as I remember. What should I expect?
How do your modified stem cells keep those other horny little (naturally prolific) stem cells in your marrow from continuing to overdo it? What’s the trigger, or gate?
Best of luck in the ensuing weeks. Take it easy, and I’m so glad you’ve got a handle on this.
From what I understand, bone marrow donation isn’t exactly a walk in the park, but it’s not the horror it used to be, either. And there’s that whole saving a life thing to give you lots of warm fuzzies and grateful nurses bringing you coffee.
I’ve been on the registry about 8 years without a call. So that’s 8 years of patting myself on the back without getting any needles. The registration requires just a cheek swab done by yourself in your own home, and some money to process it - I registered when some agency or another had just given them a huge donation so there was no registration fee.
If my cheek swab data ever matches someone who needs a transplant, they’ll contact me and set up some further tests to make sure it’s a really cromulent match. They pay for a check up and testing and transportation if I need to go somewhere for that stuff. If I am a good match, then the doctors will figure out which method of donation is best for me and the recipient - the one **USCDiver **is doing now, taking medicine (also paid for by them, or by the recipient’s insurance) for 5 days to increase the right kind of cells in the blood and then collecting that blood, filtering out what they need and returning the rest, OR the ol’ needle in the hip marrow donation, which they now give the good anesthetics for so it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to. Either way and *unlike *what **USCDiver **is going through, they don’t take much and it doesn’t compromise the donor’s immune system.
My knowledge of adult oncology is severely lacking, as you can tell. Two to three weeks is great. Hope everything goes well for you.
So I’ve always had the vague idea that MM is pretty close to leukemia, treated by hematologist/oncologists. The “marrow transplant” treatment option supports that impression.
But then there are those lesions on the spine etc. (I assume my MIL had/has some as well, she didn’t tell us about them though). Are they actual cancerous tumors? If so, how does the stem cell procedure stop them from continuing to produce Bad Stuff?
And what does the dexamethasone do anyway? I mean, I know it suppresses the immune system, but why is that beneficial in cancer treatment?
Thanks WhyNot. I am going to consider that. I have two friends who work at local hospitals, one as a nurse and one interning as a doc. I’ll ask them all the how stuff.
It does sound way less invasive than what my friend had to do, IIRC she had to spend the night, and it was pretty painful. I might be misremembering though, this was years ago. Like, twenty years or something.
So another yay for living in the future!
With multiple myeloma it isn’t the stem cells that grow all crazy it is (usually) a single plasma cell that goes nuts. Plasma cells are the cells that make antibodies and each cells produces antibodies to a different antigen (bacteria, vrius, etc). When a plasma cell goes bad it divides forming a plasmacytoma and also begins to produce massive amounts of antibodies while destroying the bone around it. There is some marrow in just about every bone including the skull, ribs, vertebrae, etc to there can be lesions just about anywhere there is bone.
I don’t know how or why dexamethasone helps, and I’m not sure anyone else is too sure either!
The idea behind the stem cell transplant it to kill everything in the marrow, good and bad, which would normally be fatal. (See chemical warfare.) Then the stem cell transplant is just a rescue procedure.
Ohhhh, okay. It’s a complete “cleaning of the house” kind of thing.
After reading your words “destroying the bone around it” I wanted to ask: is multiple myeloma anything like what my mother had?..I’ll try to spell it… eocenaphylicgranuloma. It ate pieces of her bone away. Does it ring a bell? It was many years ago and they did a lot of surgery on her.
Luck to you.
Eosynophilic granuloma? A quick google turns up that this is also called histiocytosis, and I’m guessing it’s autoimmune but I (unlike the OP) have NOT been to medical school. OK, I used to live a block away from a hospital and used to cut through the building on foot a lot, but I don’t think that qualifies me :).
But thanks for the correct spelling.
Hey, USCDiver, I just read your entire three-year-old Ask the ER Doc thread, and was ultimately steered toward this thread. My point is, I came to “know” you and appreciate you there and, as a result, I’m a bit bummed out to learn about what you are now faced with. I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, just wanted to wish you all the best; you seem like a good ovum.
mmm
You’ll let us know if you develop any super-powers, right? I mean, we can all keep a secret…
Ha! Thanks guys, I’ll let you know if I suddenly learn to fly. I’m actually heading in tomorrow for Step 1: Hickman, cytoxan , fluids, nausea meds, etc for 3 days. Then my 14 day clock starts before my hair all falls out.
ooh! pics or it didn’t happen.
Eosinophilia granuloma is a particular form of a condition called Langerhans cell histiocytosis, which is a neoplastic proliferation of histiocytes. Histiocytes are derived from one of the various types of white blood cells (monocytes/macrophages) and plasma cells are another (they’re actually terminally-differentiated B-lymphocytes). So you could say the two conditions are distant cousins.
BTW, best of luck, USCDiver! Yay for autologous BMTs!
Assuming that the transplant works, what happens to the plasmacytomas and the damaged bone? Will the body replace the missing/damaged bone, or will you have the lesions the rest of your life?
I wish you the best.