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My Odyssey Print E-mail
Written by Dr. Mel   
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
Article Index
My Odyssey
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Fortunately, in the fall of 1998, it didn’t take too much discussion for Dr. Cooper and myself to agree to give it a try. I had to do something because I was getting back to the point of where I was two years earlier at that total collapse. Within a month, I was on my trial of one, taking Thalidomide. The main problem, and it was a big one, we had no idea of the proper dosing. Also, we were pretty unaware of the all the side effects, and there are many. Cooper called Arkansas, and even the Director of the Yale Cancer Center, Dr. Vincent DeVita, made inquiries, but we came up pretty much empty. So, we started small, at 100 milligrams and worked up to a massive 800 milligrams – that was too much. At that point, I developed tremendous neuropathy – the deadening of nerves within my feet and hands. The dose was reduced in half, but the neuropathy never went away.  
Still, the effect on the myeloma was phenomenal. The protein level was reduced by nearly 50 percent, the back pain faded, and I was sleeping! I had my life back. For two years, just 200 to 400 milligrams of Thalidomide was all I needed to feel almost “normal.” During those two years, I spoke about this drug to many groups, and many stories were written about my efforts, but there were few takers then. Of course, since then, the drug has become a frontline treatment for many patients, but it was far from the drug of first, or any choice, back then. Still, after two years, in early 2001, my old trouble resurfaced. My back was hurting badly again. 
During that time, some pioneering work was taking place at the Dana-Farber Institute in Boston under the direction of Kenneth Anderson. I didn’t know Ken at the time, but he was already a famous myeloma specialist, and he was looking at Revimid, a derivative of Thalidomide which was in many ways more powerful than Thalidomide but without all its side effects. A Phase 1 trial had been set up for the new drug, and Dr. De Vita wanted me to go to Dana Farber and participate in the trial. Now, here I am, a patient at Yale, and the Director of the Cancer Center wants me to go to Harvard! That is the difference between a good doctor and a great one. De Vita, who also directed the National Cancer Institute, wanted the best for his patients, and he wanted me to see the absolute best. 

And I did.

 
 
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