Cancer Survivors Network - help - Comments

Re: help

MRGraz — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:21:46 -0500

My dad was a very active 85 year old when he was diagnosed last July. He was a stage II/III. He was put on the same drugs your dad is on. The only difference is that for pain they put him on a fentanyl patch (50 mg) along with vicodin as needed. He now is on a 25 mg patch and barely uses the vicodin. Hope this helps.

Re: help

lauradee767 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:01:48 -0500

hi,
my dad has been diagnosed for about a week. his kidneys quit. he just got out of the hospital. it is so daunting taking care of him. he is 72 and was my rock. he took care of me with all my surgeries over the years. i was supposed to go first. i havent heard yet what stage he is. i dont want him giving up just yet. though i do know how awful it is to feel bad all the time. this is so scary. he is on chemo and dialysis.

Re: help

Author Unknown — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:09:08 -0500

Hello,

I encourage you to contact the American Cancer Society's National Cancer Information Center. Cancer Information Specialists are available 24 hours a day and can be reached at 1-800-227-2345.

I wish your father and your family the very best,

Dana

help

jglan — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 13:04:52 -0500

Hi, I am new to the post and looking for any answers. My Dad is 66 and was just diagnosed with MM. 3 months ago we were mountain biking, swimming in big waves, and were a very active family and he seemed to be very healthy. In the last 4 weeks he started to get severe back pain which started the tests that led to being diagnosed. Well, we found out that 90-95% of his plasma cells are MM and he has one bone lesion on this sternum and 2 on different vertebrae. Because of the advanced stage they quickly started him on Valcade, Dex and Zometia along with Morphine and Vicodin for his back. Can anyone help with advice to relieve his back pain? The medication does little to help and he has a really hard time sleeping at night. I think that if we could get this under control it would really help him battle this disease. My other question is, what are his chances of bringing his MM % down and controlling this disease? We have read up a lot on MM and hear stories of people living years, but also of people dying in months. The number seems almost unbeatable and we are very scared. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.