Clinical Trial

Yesterday we met with Dr. Horwitz to review the biopsy report. As we suspected Jim's original T-cell lymphoma showed up. There was no evidence of the newer B-cell so the immunotherapy treatments must have worked for that. After meeting with Dr. Horwitz and his team of people we decided the best course of treatment for Jim would be to enter him into a clinical trial. Of course people think clinical trials sound scary or that they are a last resort but here is the deal. Dr. Horwitz has other concoctions of drugs that he could give Jim to try to get the cancer in remission but if he were to start with one of those regimens and it didn't work then it would be too late to enter this particular clinical trial.

This trial has already started and it is in its second phase. What that means is during the first phase they decided what doses of chemotherapy would be given depending on how well the participants tolerated it. Jim will go straight into the second phase. There were 6 slots left and 5 of them were taken yesterday (Jim being one of them). We really didn't have time to mull it over before making a decision. Horwitz's team went into action and Jim was put through the necessary preliminary work up (EKG's, echocardiograms, blood work). One other important fact I forgot to mention is this clinical trial is Dr. Horwitz's. It is made up of patients from MSK and the University of Nebraska but it belongs to Dr. H.

Today we had to be at the clinic by 7:00. We took a cab and I brought with me a blanket from the apartment that I have been meaning to wash before we put it on the bed. I'm funny about other people's stuff. Who knows when this blanket was last washed and how many people have used it. I crammed it into my blue Trader Joe's shopping tote and brought it to the clinic with me. We took a cab to the clinic. It was too cold and too early to walk. Once again the morning was spent doing preliminary tests and Jim finally started the chemo around 11:30. When he was back in the room I left to run some errands. I went to the laundromat and washed the darn blanket. That took about an hour. I called Jane while I was waiting. I also saw a mouse or small rat inside the laundromat near the trash can when I went to throw something away. I decided to walk back to the apartment and drop off the laundry instead of carting it back to the clinic. It was very cold out but felt good to do a brisk walk. While out, I stopped by the post office to check the mail. Today was a good mail day. Along with a few bills we also got mail from Cedar, Sara and Sandy. The last stop before returning to the clinic was Hale and Hearty Soups, where I picked up lunch for the two of us.

The dogs were too quick for me today but I was able to snap one of two stubborn Frenchies that weren't in the mood to walk. The Home banner is a gift from Sandy reminding us that home is where the heart is. When I got back to the clinic Jim was telling me about the man next to us. He was talking non-stop. What was even worse was his daughter had diarrhea of the mouth. Her voice was loud, nasal and she would not shut up. She talked about everything from her potty training son's bowel movements to the renovation of her apartment. She was so hard to tune out. Luckily I brought Jim's headphones so he could listen to his music and try to tune her out. We didn't get home until 5:00. It was a long day.