A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with my nephew, Matt, and he remarked, “You changed the way I think a cancer patient is.” I didn’t need to ask him what he meant, because at one time in my life (granted, it was a long, LONG time ago), I probably thought of cancer patients…
The Cancer Chapters
Defy
Back in 19…. (OK, 84!), I was a reporter at my first television station in Abilene, Texas. For my birthday, my parents gave me a day with a performance consultant. She was going to polish my self-admittedly raw skills and accelerate my improvement. After a half-day with her, she told me that there were many…
Update, the Primaries Edition
My heart is racing. Not over the political primaries; that mostly has my brain exploding. I have a new side effect, but I’m not sure what it’s a side effect OF. I have Tachycardia, rapid heart rate, which may require yet another drug for the side effect of a side effect of treatment. Is it…
It is not Definitely Not Working (Not much of this cancer stuff makes sense to me either)
So as not to bury my lead and to help you try to decipher the title of this post, the headline is that I am still in the PHA clinical trial at Georgetown. I now (probably) know what (most of) my future holds (for the next 6 weeks). Last time I saw Dr Giaccone, he…
Just Checking in
An interesting element to these clinical trials is you really don’t know what to expect (see: Keytruda=>Diabetes). Today, I finished the second drug cycle of my new PHA trial, and I’m starting to understand the rhythm of it. Again, it’s 7 days on, 7 days off, then back to Georgetown. So far, the side effects…
PHA-848125AC
That combination of letters and numbers is the code for the clinical trial that I am finally in, after 4 or 5 tries. I shouldn’t actually be in it; my liver enzymes are still about three times what they should be, but Dr Giaccone got the ok from the drug company in Italy. They made…