Last Stage Cocktail

I have been wanting to share the cocktail mixture that was given to my husband in his final stages of his disease, but was unable to find the information. He was in the hospital with advanced end stage 4 multiple myeloma. He had plasma cytoma's as large as golf balls on both arms. I might add we went to my parents house over the weekend and he drove there and to the hospital the following day. He was give through a central line cistplatin,cytoxan,etoposide and doxrubicin. Orally he was given thal/dex. Within one day he perked up and the plasma cytoma's flattened which was a good indication that the treatment was working. He was a fighter the whole way and never compromised his life in any way because of the disease. He was in pain constantly but did not take pain meds unless he absolutly needed to. That probably was the wrong thing to do but that was part of who he was. He had more courage than anyone I know. The chemo ultimatly caused kidney failure. Until this point his kidney's were functioning ok. Basically his organs just started failing. He passed away in the critical care unit 2 weeks later on a ventilator. He did come off the ventilator for 7 hours. During that time he stood up and told me to get somebody to cut the spaghetti and ge him a pair of cruthches and get him out of there. Before he went on the ventilator he coded 3 times in one night two of the times he was on the ventilator. The first time he coded they worked on him for 20 minutes. They thought there would be brain damage but there was none. It is my opinion that he was given so many fluids through the iv to maintain kidney functon that he pretty much drowned on lung fluids. He had extreme pitted edema with asparis, spelling is probably incorrect but it is when fluid starts destroying the tissues I think. They drained his lungs and the fluid expelled was unbelievable. What actually ended his life or any hope of survival was when he aspirated on the stomach gases  when they were trying to get a BP tilting his head back. Right before that the doctor came out and reported that all the proceedures that they had just performed went well and things looked good. They weren't to hopefull before doing these proceedures to monitor things more accurately. I can't say it gets any easier to accept but life does move on. I just want to help others through their pain with the hope that someday we can beat this ugly disease. We were hoping to buy time but for us time ran out.For others on this site I hope that you can hang on long enough to beat it. God bless all. Kevin I wish you the best and keep fighting and moving. My husband never syaed in bed either, Ijust hope the medical field learned something from this that can be helpful to someone else. This site is a Godsend.

Linda

Mike 2/1/49- 10/15/07

Hi Linda --

Yes, I do remember reading this message some time ago, but I didn't respond because I really didn't know what to say.

He was give through a central line cistplatin,cytoxan,etoposide and doxrubicin. Orally he was given thal/dex.

I don't recognise any of these drugs and do not know why they would have chosen these to give to him when he reached stage 4.  Obviously they worked in the initial stages, but because he was so far gone, they couldn't maintain him.  I sometimes worry about what will happen to me when I reach the 'end' stage of this disease, but I do use pain medication and try to maintain as normal a lifestyle as possible.  I know that the Revlimid will only work for a set period of time and that I have already gone further on it than most people ever do, but I am hopeful that it will continue working for me for a long time to come.  If not, then I don't now where I'll turn at that point, but like you, I am grateful for this site and keep my ear to the ground for any new and novel drugs and treatments that are found.  I will certainly ask my doctor - when the time comes - about your 'cocktail', but I'm not into adding new things into my regieme just because they 'might' be useful.  I have been blessed so far, and am sharing what I have learned with anyone who wants to know.  I only tell people what has worked for me.  Thank you for sharing what you learned with Mike.  This field is still in its infancy and there is much to learn for us all, patients, carers, and medical staff included!  I hope life becomes easier for you as time goes by and that the happy memories that you have become the ones that are most often in your mind.  Take good care -- kind regards, Cath