Heigh ho, heigh ho, to Little Rock we go

Well, we are in Little Rock (again) for the third time this month. Don had his first vaccine on Dec 30th. The vaccine process is really much easier than we had imagined. The day before the vaccine, Don gets a growth factor [GMCSF (Lukeine)] injection and blood work. The next day, he receives two other injections (vaccine and KLH) in the same site with the GMCSF. He gets one additional GMCSF injection in that site the third day. He also begins a five day course of Interleukin-2 (IL-2) on that day. We get to snap a digital photo of the injection site at 48 hours for the research study.

We arrived in Little Rock on Wednesday, January 25th for the third vaccine before his stem cell transplant. He will have another big round of tests next week. If all goes well, he will have the stem cell transplant the first Monday in February. We have moved into the apartment complex where we stayed in December, planning to be here for 4-5 weeks. Our apartment faces the driving range, which is a little like torture to D because we didn't bring clubs. The course is the home course for U or Ark golf teams, so we get to watch some pretty good players.

Don's energy has steadily improved over the past three weeks, as his red count has improved. He was even able to stay awake all the way through King Kong!! Of course, his sense of humor has rebounded, as well, so I have to stay on my toes!

It was great to see friends when we were home in January. Everyone has been so supportive. We will post more about the stem cell transplant as we know it. God bless you all!

Good bye 2005

I don’t know about you but I’m glad to see 2005 behind me. Years that end in “5” have not been good for Mary Jo & me since 1985. We hope you & your loved ones have a happy & healthy 2006.

Last week went better than expected. I had a PET scan & bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday then got my lymphocytes returned to me on Thursday from the WBC’s I gave before the chemo. It has something to do with improving immunity & increasing the effectiveness of the vaccinations. I will have two more similar leukophereses during the course of the protocol. Friday I got my first vaccination, growth factor & a vaccination booster all SQ in the same spot in the arm and other than soreness I had no ill effects. That was very good news because reactions are common as with all vaccinations.

The PET was about the same as before, the biopsy showed some early improvement and all the labs looked good, but the hemoglobin has been slow to recover hanging between 8.6 & 9.7 so fatigue & postural dizziness are still problems. It takes nothing to get my heart rate to 130.

The good news is that we came back home on New years Eve afternoon and will be here till a week from Wednesday when we are back for two days for the 2nd vaccination then we are home again for another 12 days. It is sure nice to have most of the month at home because most of February will be spent in LR. I’m feelin good and drove today for the 1st time in 3 weeks. I’m a liberated man (temporarily). My head almost looks like Big Al’s (one of my Methodist ED buddies) except for a little fuzz and it gets cold so I’m thinking of getting a do-rag. And by the way, if it wasn’t for fatigue I could still whip Big Al’s ass!!

So I’ll be able to see some folks this month which will be nice after feeling like I’ve been in isolation for the past few weeks. We’ll keep you posted as things develop

Don's Clinical Trial

Here is the clinical trial Don is participating in. He is #5 of 100 subjects in the protocol. He is participating in the NY-ESO-1 arm of the study.
Clinical Trial: Study of MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO-1 Immunotherapy in Combo With DTPACE Chemo and Auto Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma