Still Holding

Curt and I had a great vacation in Key West and Miami. Everyone was fine while we were away, which was our biggest concern. We haven't had a vacation together in a long time so it was nice and relaxing to get away. We definitely liked Key West the best and will return sometime in the future, hopefully with Adrienne and Daniel.

Adrienne is in the throws of the last weeks of school, which is always tough. I remember well the rollercoaster of college. She is holding up as well as can be expected and will register for next fall's classes this week too. She already chose her dorm for next year, which is in a new building on campus with individual AC and heating control. Nice!

Adrienne has had a sinus infection and cough, which is a bit concerning. She's on her second course of antibiotics and she isn't sure if things are improving or not. Thankfully, she hasn't had any fevers but tumor is always a concern when there's a cough that doesn't respond to antibiotics. She's also itching a bit again after a few weeks reprieve. I still don't have word on the clinical trial so I'll be on the phone this week trying to get a tentative schedule.

It's all good

Adrienne is doing great. She's really happy at school and looking forward to next year and graduate school (yes, that's Adrienne, always planning ahead). She sees the doctor tomorrow for labs and a checkup but we don't expect any surprises. And, it turns out that the trial we're interested in opened last Friday at the Nevada Cancer Institute. They're busy getting her medical records and she should be able to start almost as soon as school is out. Yippee. In the meantime, the career center at CMC has sent a letter to the career center at UNLV asking that Adrienne be allowed to use their services to find a summer internship.

Our visit to Seattle last weekend was good, though a bit bittersweet. Joyce is doing relatively well and we're glad we were able to see her while she's still having good days. If she's still feeling well, we'll go up there again in May after our vacation. Oops, forgot to mention that Curt and I are going to the Florida Keys and Miami on April 16 for a much needed break. I'm already packing.

Balancing Act

Adrienne is feeling really good right now, better than she has in months. As has been the case for the last few years, we need to balance her life and how she feels with these treatments and clinical trials. In many ways, we're very lucky that she has a relatively slow growing cancer and that we have the luxury of time to figure out the next best steps and to try more than one drug. When she's highly symptomatic, as she was last fall, we feel the need to get something going as quickly as we can while trying not to do too much damage, since an infection or bone marrow damage could be catastrophic to her.

Given this window we have in her health and a wide open summer, I've been researching a number of options including contacting MD Anderson. After a week and a half of talking with staff and obtaining records, Dr. Younes, their Hodgkin's researcher, called and we talked for about an hour. We went through all the options at City of Hope plus the options available at MD Anderson. He was honest in saying that there's no right answer and no one knows what will work for Adrienne. The trials at City of Hope seem very promising in the lab, and the best news is, the drug that's only been available at MD Anderson may be coming to the Nevada Cancer Center soon, so of course, I have a call in to them too.

It seems that my asking for records and letting COH know that we're looking at other options got them busy and the AKT trial is now approved. Tentatively, Adrienne will start next week. In the meantime, we're off to Seattle to see Joyce. She's feeling relatively well and looking forward to our visit, along with a potluck lunch at the house with the whole family, millions of cousins and all, which I'm sure will be bittersweet.