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It's a beautiful day, and.........

I'm stuck lying around the house with a bad back [again]. (Fortunately there is a golf tournament to occupy me somewhat.) Don't know what I did to deserve it, but I've found that often to be the case.

So since it's been over a week since I've posted anything, I thought I'd take this opportunity to just 'ramble' about a few things that come to mind.

Edie is still on Velcade + Dex maintenance therapy. She switched to every other week, because every week was just getting to be too much, and also started subcutaneous injections of the Velcade instead of the standard infusion. While the research seems to indicate there is no difference between subcutaneous injections and infusions, I'm not so confident. Especially now that her counts have started to rise slightly. That of course could be the result of going to every other week therapy rather than every week.

She gets another blood test on Monday, and has an appointment with her oncologist and another Velcade injection on Tuesday, so we'll know more after that, and possibly make adjustments.

As for me, I'm the same, except for the bad back that is. At least I hope that's the case. I am still a little concerned about my IGA and IGM numbers being slightly abnormal, but I think I can wait for my next appointment in May to see if there is a trend developing.

I also received an email earlier in the week, from another MCL'r, that I feel the need to comment on. Based on some of the things this person mentioned, I thought they might have been taking some of my rantings about not rushing into treatment, or the cure being worse than the disease, a little too much to heart.

Fortunately reason prevailed, and whether it was my response, or some other factor, she decided to start treatment with Rituxan as a single agent.

While I am certainly an advocate of not rushing into treatment, I am not, nor have I ever advocated against conventional treatments. I have also never been shy about expressing my opposition to so called "alternative treatments" of any kind, as they are nothing more than a scam designed to separate you from your money.

But when the time comes, when symptoms become overwhelming [even before that in most cases], and especially when quality of life issues become a factor, there is no choice. Conventional therapy is the only way. The only thing being, I would try to start with the least toxic treatment first, and then go for the "big guns" as needed.
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Comments

Alan Posner said…
As what we write here might affect peoples treatments, I'm glad you made it clear that these are just you're opinions, and while you do a lot of reading about MCL and Multiple Myeloma, one shouldn't consider you an expert. Medicine is one of those arts that can't be learned by just reading. Experience is just as important.

Before one follows any advice about delaying cancer treatment, one has to distinguish between diseases that can be "cured" by therapy vs those that are contained by therapy. In those diseases in which a curative therapy has been shown scientifically, the earlier the treatment the better the chance for cure. In the remainder it remains to be determined if early treatment is better than waiting until symptoms occur or worsen. In those I would be guided by the literature if there is any on this subject for a specific disease. My intuition tells me there is no difference and if there has been no studies for a particular disease and treatment I think it's reasonable to be guided by gut feeling (or the internet). Of course any decision should be discussed with ones physician.
4:11 AM
Marc said…
Interesting! I certainly think I have always made it clear I am not an expert, and everything I write is my opinion, based on extensive research. And I would hope, being this blog is entitled Living with MCL, most people would infer I was referring only to MCL, and to some extent other blood or lymphatic cancers, excluding multiple myeloma (MM). [I don't think I've ever admitted to knowing much, if anything, about MM.]

But since you brought the topic up, while in almost every case, including blood and lymphatic cancers, waiting too long is definitely not a good idea, there is evidence, even for hard tumor cancers, that treating too early has no benefit at all either, and can present problems down the road that may not otherwise exist.

Prostrate cancer comes to mind as one that can be so slow growing, many people would die from other causes, long before ever needing treatment for their prostrate cancer, and actually could die sooner by going for a cure.

Have you read this article? (It's there in my sidebar.)

Unfortunately this discussion always comes back to a discussion of the US health care system, i.e. fee-for-service medicine. How much better off do you think we'd all be, financially as well as health wise, if doctors only had to worry about their patients, and not about how much profit they need to generate for themselves and/or their employers?

Also just my opinion! :)
5:56 AM
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