Multiple Myeloma - Dad on yet another chemotherapy cycle

trinabelle · New User Joined: 20 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

My Dad is now in his second year of Multiple Myeloma. He presented with what we thought was pneumonia but it turned out he had kidney failour due to the calcium leakage into his bloodstream from his bones and into his kidneys. We were amazed he survived this but he has gone on to have two chemotherapy cycles (one taking place while he had pheumonia, not picked up until after the treatment started. Miraculously surviving this also). Dad has gone from being imobile to feeling strong enough to drive and go back to his gardening job (albeit at his own pace). It's been a rollercoaster moving from chronic pain in his hip and back eased by radiotherapy and solpadene to infection brought about by a low immunity caused by the chemotherapy.

Dad has had Revlimid having exhausted all other treatments. His Myeloma seems to grow on soft tissue especially around his lungs causing breathing difficulties. However, a ll was well and Dad was particularly well during the Revlimed and steroid combo managing to do some work and walking daily until he began to find breathing difficult again. This time he felt sick and had no appetite. Day after day he ate less and less until he felt too full to eat at all. Finally we could ignore it no longer and \Dad was diagnosed with liver failour due to a blockage of his bile duct. He now has a new tuor on his stomach/gall bladder which is blocking his gall bladder and causing jaundice/liver failour. Dad's doctor explained that he had limited time which they would make comfortable with a steroid treatment, Dad asked for more chemotherapy and after week three, this is working well. He's still on the rollercoaster as are we all. There are days we are surprised he survives and days he walks out to visit the corridor to see a Magpie building a nest in an enclosed courtyerd. A side story is that Mum has been broken down with stress and today was admitted to the same hospital with pneumonia. She is also a lady who loved every one of her twenty a day ciggies. She claims now, after sixty years, that she is a non smoker.

The moral of the story is to the young ones diagnosed is don't ever give up. dad is seventy eight and his companionin the bed opposite him is eighty four. He has been desperately ill and his doctors are amazed by him. But he doesn't take their word for anything and he keeps doing something they did not expect him to do. So be quirky, don't give in to anything too quickly, walk when they say take a wheelchair and drive when they say rest. Force yourself to eat when you feel sick to your stomach and dress each day in your finery (makeup ladies please!). Your attitude is a far greater combatant in this war on MM than any chemical concoction combination.

For my part, may i say, that my teenagers are such wonderful human beings that i have been able to leave them to their own devices while I have been trying to give back to their grandparents a tiny proportion of what they have given to me since my childhood. Each day truly is a gift and I pray that my children learn how vulnerable it is to be elderly and ill and what a gift it is to be of use in a time of crises.

brainman

trinabelle, thank you for sharing your father's story. I am sorry that he is going through this. My farther in law had MM almost two decades ago so I do not remember many of the details. He lived 6 years after his original diagnosis.
_________________
Jim
Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendroglioma grade 3, same location.
http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=2405
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=2528
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 3: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Twitter: @JimHawkins54

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> Multiple Myeloma Forum	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others