The First Day of the Rest of My Life

The day finally arrived.   We were going to begin the experimental treatment that promised long-term remission.  On Thursday, my mom (in town for a visit) and I headed down to Stanford to embark on this new journey.  

We arrived at 9:45 am at the Stanford Clinical Trials Building, eager to begin.  After checking in and hugging everyone, they sat me down for the first step – the blood draw.  My fabulous nurse, Cindy, started pulling out vial after vial for my blood.  (Big apologies for those of you who are squeamish about these things.)  She turned to me and said “wow – I rarely see a study that asks for this many vials.  The nurses were concerned about my blood pressure, but chalked it up to nervousness.

Rebecca (the trial coordinator for Dr. Kohrt) then walked me over to the Cancer Center to meet with my new BFF Dr. Kohrt, so that he could answer any last questions and get final sign-off to start.   I was initially most interested in finding out what they saw in the CT scans.   How many tumors were still in me?  Did they grow? Were there new tumors? The good news and the bad news is that I still had the same 5 tumors from June.  They had grown a little, but there were no new tumors.  This meant that the chemo that I was on had been able to keep my tumors in check.  But, of course, it also meant that the dosage that I was on was not able to kill them.   He was pleased that the tumors were still small, yet I had enough for Genentech to let me participate in the study. 

I then asked him the biggest question of all - “what have been the results for others thus far?”  His answer – “the results have been dramatic.”  Dramatic?  Did he actually use that word?  I repeated it back to him, just to make sure that I had heard him correctly.  That's about the best word that anyone who is undergoing any treatment would want to hear.

Alas, my blood pressure continued to be too high for anyone to feel comfortable giving me an infusion.  Several hours of continual testing did nothing but raise my stress. I was getting desperate, because this meant I would have to come back to start treatment another day.

They then came up with a new solution to try to drop my blood pressure – they placed a double dosage of Ativan under my tongue and Dr. Kohrt convinced Genentech to let me go forward with the infusion. The day had been quite an ordeal, but by the time Stanford closed for the evening, I had received my first infusion.  Success!

And how am I feeling now?  FANTASTIC!  It has been nearly a month since I took my last chemo pill.  I can feel my hands, feet and brain returning to normal.  It’s a wonderful feeling not having poison coursing through my body.  There are no side effects to my PDL-1 treatment.  Let me repeat that….THERE ARE NO SIDE EFFECTS. 

In about 6 weeks we should know if the PDL-1 drug is working for me.  I have every confidence that the tests will show that it is.   I feel like I’m getting my life back.  It has been such a long road.  It’s been nearly 5 years since I was first diagnosed.  I have learned so much and I believe that I am a better person for having gone through this journey.  But I am ready to be done with cancer.  I am ready to reclaim my health and my life.