T Minus ?

We resumed our secret life at Huntsman Cancer Hospital again this week. We have appointments every day (mostly radiation on my giant nodule in my back), and sometimes two appointments! I got a nice beaded bracelet from Beads for Cancer. Another nice freebie to cheer us up in the waiting room.

On Monday we stopped by to see mom between appointments. She is doing great.

Her back yard is a mess. They finally started work on her new garage. Hopefully, it will be finished before we get any serious storms!

We had some funny snow melt in my back yard. It feels like a Salvador Dali painting. All askew, just like my life.

My new doctor, Dr. Stephens, is very enthusiastic about starting me on a CAR-T trial. Unfortunately, the lab in Washington that processes the T-cells is shut down right now, as they had an infection in a sample and are investigating what happened. The lab (Juno) says they will be back up the last week of January. In the meantime, we can see if I could be one of the first new patients when they start up again.

Sadly, my WBC has continued to rise and was 141 on Monday. All that hard work last year, blown in a few days! I continue on my new drug, Idelalisib, and it may start working soon. Or not. It might not have controlled by white count, but it has made me very tired. I have a hard time doing anything productive now. Fortunately, Ed is stepping into his old role and bringing me food on a regular basis!

Plan B  is to go to another hospital whose CAR-T lab is not shut down. The City of Hope (a well-renowned hospital in the Los Angeles area) creates their treatment in-house. We have contacted them and they will be calling me today or tomorrow to arrange a consultation. I wonder if they realize speed is of the essence here. We are likely to take whichever hospital comes through for us first. If my current drug is not working, Dr. Stephens has a few more ideas to help keep my cancer in control while we wait.

I feel like a ticking time bomb with an uncertain clock. We just have to beat the clock, but we don't know when the clock will reach its critical point! Hang on for more thrills and chills on the cancer roller coaster!