About the Cancer - Multiple Myeloma
Myeloma is a type of cancer that begins in the bone marrow. It is a cancer of plasma cells.
Plasma cells normally make antibodies that help fight infection. Myeloma starts
with a change to a single B cell. With myeloma, the change in the B cell causes
it to become a myeloma cell instead of a normal plasma cell. As the myeloma cells grow in the
marrow, they crowd out the normal plasma cells. They also crowd out normal
white cells and red cells. Myeloma that is found in the marrow of many bones in
the body is often called multiple myeloma. Most patients with myeloma
have this form of the disease.*
The Treatment Plan:
Step One:
Drug Therapy, including
Chemotherapy
Four rounds (about a month each)
taken orally and with infusion. I started my first treatment on 8-12-13.
Step Two:
Stem Cell Transplantation (using
my own stem cells) with High Dose Chemotherapy and Radiation in Omaha (possibly
December of 2013)
This is a condensed and general
overview for a very complicated treatment. Suffice it to say, that this type of
cancer is very serious, complicated, unpredictable and not curable at this
point. The goals for me will be to try to keep the cancer at bay as much as
possible, and therefore increase longevity and quality of life.
*For more information, please
visit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society website
http://www.lls.org/
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