Hello Nigel
Hope you don't mind me telling you this, I just feel like I need to for some reason.
My husband got myeloma roughly around 3 yrs ago, he died xmas eve.Don't get put off when you here that. He suffered alot of side effects later in time.
He was a healthy, fit man who worked, then all of a sudden became so ill. He was ill for a year, no-one knew what it was, he couldn't eat, got lots of pains in his back, then he got rushed to hospital because of his blood count and transplants and tests started.
He had all tablet forms of chemo and thalidimide. Thalidimide didn't agree with him so he did well without it. He went from 89% to 4%. Then he had stem cell transplant. He was really poorly with this. He was in solitude for along time. But when he came home we got told it had been a success.
3 months later his myeloma was back, with avengence. He had velcade which gave him many side effects, his body wasn't strong enough to deal with them so he was in and out of hospital. We got told this was working but after 3 months the same thing happened, he got his myeloma back. Then it was revlimide time. He never came out of hospital while he was taking this because all medications gave Michael infection after infection so he was fighting on a tight rope.This was a success for 3 months then it came back like mad.He fought and fought but passed away Christmas Eve.
So it doesn't matter how you respond to treatment, its how and what your body can take with medications and the myeloma. Michael fought and responded well but in the end he died, you could be a lucky one and last for 10yrs. No-one knows so deal with your illness. Myeloma is a disease that every individual responds to differently.
Please look after yourself and I wish you all the best in the future
Luv Roz
