08/04/10 - Beginning of Round 4

We came down on Monday afternoon so I could get a CT Scan to do a comparison against the scan done in February, before I started the treament, and 6 months out. This was OK because I had to be at Moore's on Tuesday morning at 7:30 for a blood test before my 8:00 am appointment with Dr. Kipps for an evaluation. All of my blood numbers are going in the right direction and even my hemoglobin continues to rise. The other measuring stick is the actual physical exam by Dr. Kipps. Let's just say that after the physical exam, he was actually beaming. The two main things he looks at are the nodes and the spleen. For the first time since 2007, he could not feel my spleen, and my nodes are almost all non-existent. And it was not as if he didn't try. OUCH! He always is very thorough in his exam, but this time he was EXTRA thorough and he still couldn't find anything. He said there had been a slight change for the better since last month's exam, he felt I should go one more round. I had always expected this, so it was no surprise. But he did say that if I remained at this state next month he would have to re-evaluate whether to go one more round or not. Now, this was a surprise.

The original trial was to go 6-8 monthly cycles, but another person on the trial had only 5 cycles before they stopped because she was doing so well. I was kind of hoping that this would be my case as well, but now it looks like there is a possibility I might stop at 4. It all depends on how my numbers look and how my physical exam goes. He told me that he doesn't want to over treat me, but he also doesn't want to stop before I receive the full benefit of the treatment. So right now I think the max I would do is 5 rounds (Which would be the September treatment), but I may stop after this one.

Day 2 of this round is only about 1 1/2 hours and after the 8 hours yesterday it will be a snap. Even got to go to Harry's in La Jolla this morning for breakfast. On Thursday I just get a blood test and take my oral drug, then home, so it will be a VERY short day. Last month I felt poorly for about 5 days after the treatment, but I am hoping to shorten that even more after this round.

Trying to remain the poster boy!
Terry