I had my appointment with the specialist in charge of the ABT-199 clinical trial at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle today. Which entailed having blood/lab work done.
My platelets are now within the minimum needs of the
trial, barley. My white blood count is on the rise again, but still in the normal
range. And for the first time in a long
time my red blood count is normal!
The doctor and trial coordinator had some concerns with
my kidney functions that showed up on the lab report and think this may be connected with my having so
many CT Scans in such a short time over this last year. So the trial coordinator is letting me get by
with a MRI instead. Then comes a bone
marrow biopsy and the trial will start shortly afterwards. So it looks like were getting closer to an
actual start date.
The doc wants me to start drinking mass water and to cut
down on the caffeine! Now what am I
gonna do to stay awake? Lucky for me
they said to cut down on caffeine, not stop it completely!
The trial coordinator told me that after the MRI and bone
marrow biopsies are done, the first day of the trial will actually consist of
more tests, which will be several EKG exams, and stress tests.
Then the next day I will come back for a blood test, and
be given the first pill. This will be
followed by several other blood tests a hour or two apart to monitor how I am
doing on the pill as they expect results that quickly! After about an 8 hour day I will be sent to
the hospital for an overnight stay for even more monitoring.
All of the monitoring is because they expect what is
called tumor lysis to occur, which is a massive tumor drop in the blood and
bone marrow, and if not dealt with properly it could affect my organs and my
body could shut down. So a lot of
precautions are taken.
The next day will be full of more blood tests to monitor
whats going on again.
Then I will need to come back each day after that for
more tests for 3 to 5 days.
7 days after the first pill is given, I will get another
pill, which will become a daily pill from then on. I will need
to come in twice a week for 1 - 3 months, which
will gradually become once a week then once ever two weeks to once a month
after that.
If everything goes as planned I will be on this pill for
the rest of my life.
I have actually been in contact with a person on the
trial that has been doing this for several months and she is doing great. So far with the people on this, great things
are happening and everyone involved is hopeful.
This is not a cure, but so far this is the next best
thing to one that anyone has found.
Only time will tell, and the good Lord willing, I will be
around to tell this tale to my great grand children some day!
So it looks like I will soon be a Lab Rat!
Never Ever Give Up
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