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Clinical Trial – Week 2
On Sunday, Oct 29th, George started complaining of chills and he was cold. Hello, fever. We have been expecting you. The nurses followed protocol and took blood cultures because it could be an infection causing the fever. George’s blood counts are extremely low and he is severely immunocompromised. They immediately started him on broad spectrum…
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Clinical Trial – Week 1
George was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday, October 18. He woke up that morning with an almost debilitating back ache. The pain was in the center of his mid-back and made working a challenge. He could not get comfortable in his chair and it hurt to make pretty much any movement. Because of the…
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Clinical Trial Date Set
This past couple of weeks has been a busy time for us. George started his chemo infusions on Sept 25th and finished them up on Oct 3. He was also taking the oral chemo pill venetoclax. During this time, he had an echocardiogram and an electrocardiogram to clear him for the clinical trial. Because his…
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Office Visit
Wednesday, we drove to Philadelphia again and met with Dr. Loren, George’s primary oncologist/hematologist. She said that although Dr. Lai believed he didn’t need any chemotherapy while we wait for his CART-38 cells to be manufactured, she thinks he does. Dr. Lai felt that since his higher than normal blast counts were confined to the…
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Bone Marrow Biopsy #9 and Pre-Donor Evaluation
George had his bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday, Sept 13 and for the first time, we had to wait almost two hours for him to be taken back! Poor thing was starving, as he couldn’t eat. As always, everything went well and he was ready for a snack when he was rolled back to recovery…
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A Bridge to Transplant
After meeting with Dr. Lai, the research doctor, we got some clarification regarding the clinical trial/ CART-38 cells. After George completes this current round of chemotherapy, he will undergo a bone marrow biopsy (the week of Sept 12). If he has less than 5% blasts, then he will be eligible to go directly to transplant,…
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BM Biopsy Results…
Were not what we were hoping for. Of course, blasts are the immature white blood cells that are the main characters in everyone’s AML story. Over 20% means you have leukemia, so it’s not that. But you must have below 5% to be in remission, so it’s not that either. That means the bone marrow…
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Bone Marrow Biopsy #8 and More
We started this week off with a trip to the cardiologist to get an EKG and a chest x-ray for George. There was still some concern about the fluid/edema in his feel, ankles and calves. The doctor wanted to make sure there wasn’t any fluid around his heart. He got the all-clear from that visit,…
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Chemo infusions complete…
For seven days, we braved the traffic and drove to and from Philadelphia for George’s infusions of Vidaza. He finished his last infusion yesterday and now he will continue taking the oral chemo, Venclexta until July 30th. For the first time, George was nauseated and had dry heaves and vomiting after his treatment. This happened…
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Challenge accepted (like we had a choice…)
In my last post, I wrote that we are moving towards a second bone marrow transplant and that there is a delay because of the results of George’s bone marrow biopsy: he had too many blasts (immature white blood cells). So, on Wednesday, we met with Dr. Loren to discuss the results and plan our…
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Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A Journey 