A VERY GOOD DAY!

Today I finally heard back from our doctor in Houston, Dr. Wang.  She called me just as I was finishing patients for the morning.  We have been pretty anxious about this call.

So, she said that the scan showed no tumor growth.  In her words, "This is the best possible outcome we could expect at this point in the trial."  She told me that because my cancer creates bone, it will take time for my body to remove the bone tissue that had been made,

This is the part that had Dr. Wang really excited.  As part of the study last Tuesday they gave me a chicken pox vaccination.  The genetically altered T-cells have been programed to be responsive to the chicken pox virus.  So the idea was that giving me a vaccination would cause the T-cells to become more active.  Well, by Tuesday night I was hurting quite a bit.  By Wednesday morning at 5:30 am the pain had become excruciating.  It felt like someone had cut a hole in the top of my head and was pouring boiling water in the right side of my head.  I was literally running around the apartment holding my head in both hands.  I needed to get some pain medication but I was hurting so much I couldn't compose myself to get it ready.  Sweet JoLynne came running out of the bedroom to my rescue.  So after dumping a bunch of pain medication in my stomach tube JoLynne sat and rubbed my feet trying to get the pain to ease off.  It finally did, thank heavens.  Then the drainage from my wound really ramped up.  The bandage just kept filling up with drainage.

So I don't think that they expected such a dramatic response to the vaccination.  Frankly I didn't either.  Now it has been several days.  My face is still burning but not as bad.  Still lots of drainage.  I told Dr. Wang what was happening.  She was pretty excited.  She took my case to a conference today and presented it.  The other doctors were excited as well.  She now wants me to keep a daily diary of everything I experience.  She wanted JoLynne to retrieve my yucky bandages and gauze out of the garbage and send it to Houston for analysis.  She said that given my response we should have no hesitation in scheduling our reconstruction surgery in Miami and she wants them to preserve all the bone they remove and have it frozen and sent to Texas for analysis.  After talking to her on the phone it felt like they believe they have discovered something important in cancer treatment.  She was very upbeat.

God answers prayers

JoLynne said "You know, Dr. Wang is so nice, God would have no problem revealing something important through her."  I agree wholeheartedly.   JoLynne and I spent a good part of the afternoon crying  We are so grateful that God is providing this miracle to preserve my life.  The day of miracles has not passed.