Chemo, Pain, and Some New Info

Adrienne got her chemo yesterday, which went fine. We finished quite late because the nurses became engaged trying to get an NG tube into a boy who struggled and was stronger than they were. We had to wait for labs and then for chemo. Adrienne's blood counts remain good so we've been able to stay on schedule. We rescheduled the next chemo for May 9 since Adrienne has AP exams the week of May 2 and wants to feel good for those.

The pain in Adrienne's hip isn't neuropathy and is probably something more structural. She's going to try a therapeutic dose of Naprosen for two weeks to see if that helps the problem. It probably won't help the pain in her feet but we'll deal with one thing at a time.

After Adrienne's chemo, we went to a Team In Training event where the speaker was the head of bone marrow transplant at Stanford, Dr. Robert Negrin. He is also a participant on the cycle team. Go Team! We got there late and missed his presentation, but were able to pull him aside and talk afterwards. We got some very interesting and useful information. He thinks Adrienne should have DLIs, explaining that the potential benefits outweigh the risks. Since she has full donor chimerism and it has been two years since her transplant, the risks of GVHD are very low and likely to be chronic in nature and easily treated. There is also a clinical trial of "cytokine-induced killer cells" at Stanford that Adrienne would likely qualify for. I've asked Adrienne's transplant doctor to talk with this doctor. She hasn't been very helpful in this regard and if we don't hear back by Friday, we'll make an appointment to see Dr. Negrin at Stanford.