High Fives at the Farber & Aspirin

Last week I was at Dana-Farber for my first round of testing for 2014. Fairly uneventful visit. And, it was actually by far the shortest wait time I've ever had since being a patient there! We reviewed my labs and 24 hour urine from the week before. My m-spike is up slightly, free light chain ratio down slightly, and everything else is fairly "stable" as Dr. R likes to say. In the appointment he actually said, "Rock solid!" and gave me a high-five. Ha. ;)

Last spring Dr. R had recommended I start taking aspirin. He was hoping that daily aspirin would help settle down my fevers. He also mentioned that there had been studies that have shown that daily use of aspirin helps fight/prevent cancer. I wrote about that visit in this post last year: Hospital evacuation, 2 specialists down, and aspirin. He told me that they were in the process of planning clinical trials for MGUS and SMM patients using aspirin.


Well, hopefully the aspirin that I have been taking is making a difference because check this out:

Long-term aspirin use decreased risk for multiple myeloma

Regular aspirin use and risk of multiple myeloma: a prospective analysis in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and Nurses' Health Study


Dr. Durie wrote about it in his blog as well:

Dr.Durie: Can an Aspirin a Day Keep the MYELOMA away?



I will return to Dana-Farber in April for labs andddd NO 24 HOUR URINE (I convinced him to let me skip since I've had 10/11 24 hour urine collections that were normal and could really use a break from the orange jug. I'm sure I'll repeat the test for the July visit. I have a repeat DEXA scan scheduled in April to see how my bone density is doing. We will review those results and decide next steps as far as repeating more imaging, bone marrow biopsy, and if I am going to begin zometa infusions. This will all depend on my results, in particular if I will have to repeat the bone marrow biopsy. Dr. R said that he doesn't want to "poke me" if the results will essentially be the same as they were in July and December 2012. He was very excited that I am participating in the Mind/Body trial for SMM at Mass General. He actually said that I seemed, "much more relaxed than usual."

Hmm, what's that supposed to mean? ;)