Night garden

nightgarden

Here’s an exciting nighttime view of the Healing Garden at our local hospital. Looks kind of abstract, huh? Well, it’s not. It was just dark. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken a few days ago at St. Rose Hospital, and part of my famous Garden and Las Vegas series.

Greetings from Houston, Texas! We got to the hotel at about midnight last night. We’re here for LRN4 to be checked out for the previously-mentioned clinical trial. Results are mixed so far. On the positive side, almost all of the people here have been excellent and provided speedy, courteous service. On the negative side, there were a couple of very long waits for service (2 – 2.5 hours each). On the very negative side, it looks like the clinical trial we came to be evaluated for isn’t really right for us. Turns out the drug is really intended as a way to get people into remission when existing drugs aren’t working. While they’re always hopeful that every new drug will help people get into a durable remission, that’s not really what they expect this one to do. So it doesn’t really do more than what we’re doing now.

The doctor told us he thinks our best current bet is a DLI transplant or maybe another stem cell transplant. We’re going to chat with one or two members of their transplant team tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions. If we get another transplant, we’ll definitely do it at the City of Hope. Unless, that is, there’s some reason why they can do it here and they can’t do it there. We’ll just have to wait and see. The great news here is that we’re not in immediate danger, so we have plenty of time to find our way to a cure.

Here’s a note I put on Facebook this afternoon:

Well, it looks like this clinical trial probably isn’t for <LRN4>. She’s just too darn healthy – since her current regimen is keeping her in remission at least for now, the trial’s drug isn’t likely to improve things substantially. Turns out it’s not the cure we came here hoping for – just another way to get back into remission for people who need that.

They’re doing a bone marrow biopsy in a few minutes and we’ll meet with the doctor here on Thursday morning to go over the results just to make sure there’s really no leukemia in there, so the current answer could change, but we don’t think it will.

As sad as I am that MD Anderson isn’t proposing anything that will get us to a cure right now, I’m delighted that we’re able to keep <LRN4> in remission with her current therapy at home. Being too healthy for the trial has its upside. It’s way better to be at home.

We live to fight another day!

That’s what’s going on with LRN4. Some good, some not so good. Either way, it was a twelve-hour day at the clinic, which was more than enough.

No work the last couple of days. My Loyal Readers will just have to forgive me for that. We should have a bunch of time on our hands tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday, so maybe I’ll find the time to get a few things done. Count on it, Loyal Readers!

And that’s about it for tonight. We’re doing fine and spirits are high, or at least medium. So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: undocumented elephant!

See you tomorrow.

One Response to “Night garden”

  1. Sandy Says:

    Sorry things didn’t go as hoped for – but I would assume that it is nice to get another opinion and advice about your treatment plan. Hopefully her infection is still on the mend! We love you!! Oh we got your box yesterday – thanks so much. I put the wrapped gifts under the tree. You guys are amazing. I can’t believe you got your mailing done!!!

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