My dad, aged 82, was diagnosed 8 weeks ago and been on 2 cycles of DRd since. He has not yet made it out of hospital. He did not have calcium in the blood, which I believe indicates an earlier stage of the disease. Is this correct? They seem to having problems getting any balance. His haemoglobin has gone very low- and he has had numerous transfusions. His fluids dip- gets fluids. He has had a number of infections and periods of low kidney function requiring antibiotics. His mood is very low and cognitive function is impaired. Fatigue is also bad and mobility poor. I’d like to be able to tell him this gets better. He’s kinda talking in terms of ‘this is not worth it’. Anyone with any advice? We do not know if the paraproteins are coming down- it takes c 3 weeks for the results. Is this normal? My mum is worrying about how to manage when he gets home (talking about next week). What medical care should we expect at home (central belt Scotland)? Do nurses come in to monitor blood, temperature, kidney function etc. Its difficult to see how they would catch infection on time when it takes days for blood and urine tests to get processed. I will ask the nurses on here too- but any personal experience would be most welcome.
