End of First Month Results 8/20/07

I went by the Cancer Center today to sign a form so I could get the next round of Revlimid and pick up the results of my blood tests which were done Monday. My M-spike hovered at 1.9 g/dl for over a year then two months ago moved up to about 2.2 g/dl for two months. After 21 days of Revlimid/Dexamethasone the m-spike is 1.3 g/dl which is not normal but is on an encouraging downward trend. Hopefully that will continue but it is too early to get too excited about that yet. I am just very thankful and encouraged at this early response.

I am going to give the recent results my own rating of immediate positive response. Immediate because I am sure there are some folks who's m-spike doesn't move at all the first month and maybe even goes up some. Some people stay on this medication for months before they see any change. Even though the number moved in a negative direction, that's the way we want it to go so that is positive. I would like to see the m-spike go to something like .5 g/dl or whatever it would take to declare me in a state of complete response.