Hello everyone, Barbara here. Tom wanted me to update his blog to let ya'all know that he has arrived at the NIH alive and well. Long tiring flight as usual but boring. Tom arrived at the NIH on Monday evening and got all settled in. He will be a resident of Hotel NIH for about 4 weeks. Yup. Missing the holidays. But for a good cause. I am flying out on the 31st to join him for the last week and make sure he gets home safely.
So far they have done many many tests. X-rays, blood work, cat scans, MRI's. belch. But all the results have been good, no new tumors. Just the two small ones in his lungs that were known and they haven't grown. He did get a scan of his brain this time around, so there is visual evidence.... *snicker. Ahem.
His Docs talked with him today about all the various tests and their results. Everything is looking really good. Apparently the lab guy was "Very Excited" about the final results of this lymphocytes lab testing. Very reassuring to have the oncologists and the lab peeps be so positive. So as I have reassured Tom, since he is just a big walking petri dish, the lymphocytes should do their work and seek out an destroy his remaining cancer cells. easy peasy.
By friday Tom will begin the week of intensive chemo and then he will be given the genetically modified 'trained-to-seek-out-and-destroy-cancer-cells' lymphocytes. After that, he is mostly there for observation to make sure his system is tolerating everything ok.
I'm sure I have forgotten something, but for the most part all is on task, and going well.
I know all of you are sending Tom good thoughts and he appreciates all the support. He will update this blog himself probably in a few days.
Final stage! Woo-hoo!
(man I hope there aren't any typos in this thing.. I probably should have spell checked...)
5 comments:
As I said to him, lab people I have known aren't know for getting excited about much so that is a very good sign.
:-) It will suck and then be fine. Honest. I have faith.
The misery begins in earnest tonight at around 5 PM. That's when they'll start the cytotoxin (one hour per day for two days) While that might not sound too bad, they want the chemical out of your system, so I'll be "voiding" every two hours on the hour for two days straight. Not a schedule very conducive to getting rest...
And thanks to Barbara for posting this update. I miss you, Love.
No, it doesn't sound good on either end (HA! I make me laugh... only me? Oh...)
Drink lots of water... it won't help the rest part, but will help the 'voiding' be more productive in the cleaning out part.
How are you keeping yourself entertained? or is having chemo enough entertainment? If you play any silly (or not so silly) iPhone games or whatnot, let me know and I will join in and try to play more often for you.
Miss you too.. I have a box in progress to send to you.. :). And peeing every two hours. Oh dear..
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