My Amyloidosis

At last, the final chemo instalment - for now anyway.  My Doctor said that I’ve had a good response and the results (serum free light chains (SFLC)) have begun to slow and it would be a good time to stop now.  I can have a drink at Christmas - yahoo!

The bloods taken on the day will not be ready for a couple of weeks and I’m hoping that they will show another drop of 10 or 20 points but we’ll see.

Before Chemo started the baseline figure was 432 SFLC this came down as follows:

July  - 266

Aug - 186

Sept - 137

Oct - 67

Nov - 56.6

Dec - to follow (normal range is around 30)

The SFLC is not the only significant marker though - as the protein loss and the amount of albumin in my blood are also being closely monitored.

They have both improved.  My albumin was down to 12 in Hospital (March) and is now back up to 28/30, while my protein loss was as high as 15g/ltr but is now 1.8g/ltr.  This is only a small sample however the two 24hr tests have shown 9g/ltr and 5.8g/ltr.  So overall getting better.

My water retention (blood imbalance) and breathless (cardiac involvement from my amyloidosis) symptoms persist but are improving slowly.  We’ll just have to see how things are now that I’ve stopped the chemo.

Fingers crossed that things don’t kick straight back in - so January bloods are going to be really crucial - be full of the festive spirit no doubt!!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year People and remember your health is everything.

You are what you eat - My research says eat whole foods (as much as poss) - and forget all the processed stuff especially hydrogenated fats and your health will take care of itself.

Filed under: Latest News on December 4th, 2008