Okay here's the deal. This is the choice I face. I just wonder what you guys, people who's opinion I respect, would do in my situation. What exactly is my situation you ask ?
I have
Multiple Myeloma, which recently claimed
Gerraldine Ferraro, there is no cure, only life prolonging treatment.
I just finished a year of chemo, Velcade and Cytoxan, and at this point the doctors tell me they've "knocked it down". I'm not "in remission" as there is now such thing with multiple myeloma. So I will NOT need a bone marrow/stem cell transplant now. I will eventually. The disease will come back and I'll have to go on full blown chemo, until that doesn't work. Then it's a
Autologous HSCT.
The choice that I (and in this poll, you) face is this.
No Chemo: Your Quality of Life will improve as chemo won't be kicking your ass every week for month, you'll still be tired and weak from the disease. You'll get monthly blood tests and the disease will (generally) return quicker than if you had gone on maintenance chemo, and you will have to go on full blown chemo sooner.
Maintenance Chemo: That's four weeks on, four weeks off. Quality of Life won't be a nice as No Chemo as every other month will be the suck. The upside is that you'll generally keep the disease "down" longer. Meaning it will be "later" before you have to go on full blown chemo again.
That's it. Either way you'll end up on full blown chemo, until that doesn't work then it's a stem cell transplant.
It's the choice I have to make.
I have to make my decision 11 April. I'll let you know what I've decided then. In the meantime, I'd like to hear what
you would do and why.