Today, I am truly, truly thankful that on Thursday, I received my last ever dose of Velcade aka Cillit Bang.
I grateful that I have come away after 24 injections of the stuff with only minor side effects. I can still do up my buttons, yes. Buttons. I am relieved that my neuropathy is now mild, with my ability to get a dead hand or arm now only slightly easy. I can now sit still, and for eighty percent of the time, I will not get cramp or pins and needles on the lefthand side of my body. I trust that in time, this will disappear completely. I still get dizzy on occasion (2-3 times a week as the questionnaire goes), and I hope too that this will disappear.
The above is the serious stuff, though it is not the main reason I am thankful today.
Today, the reason I am pleased that I am no longer going to be injected with this bleach-like-medicine, is because I know that the inflammations and marks currently irritating my waistband will go away and they are not going to be joined by more inflammations and marks in two weeks time. This week, the Velcade must have known our time was up and felt the need to leaving a parting gift. It has decided to replicate mosquito bites on my stomach. I mean, the big mean sort of mosquito thirsty for your blood. The stretch marks don’t help. I should not have indulged quite so much at Christmas. Imagine walking in a pair of jeans with an inflamed, red, itchy and dry stretch mark on your stomach, if you can’t imagine it, find a mosquito and eat some cream… It is far from pleasant, it is irritating and it hurts. It does not hurt like a fracture, but there is quite a sting to it. See?
In the grand scheme of things, the above is minor. I know that, but it is the one thing today that has really made me think about My Myeloma. It’s the myeloma’s fault that is on my stomach along with 21 other blobs*. Fortunately, I have just whacked a healthy lashing of Lucas’ Papaw Ointment on my stomach all the way from Down Under, which I hope will work where the nappy rash ointment has not.
Let us all hope I do not scratch it in my sleep. That would not do at all.
EJB x
* In case you are worried about continuity, 22 of my 24 injections were on my stomach. The other two were on my arm.
