Radiating Hope

This week has been a little insane.  I began my week by driving down to Stanford to become close friends with the Varian Truebeam radiation machine.  After meeting the phenomenal radiation tech team (the nicest folks on the planet), I settled in to my personalized body mold (we made that a couple of weeks ago).  The techs then adjusted me – taking unbelievable care to ensure that I was perfectly aligned – to the millimeter.  There was no room for error.  Upon determining that I was ready to go, they then called in the incredible Dr. Albert Koong to work his magic.  He proceeded to take multiple x-rays followed by about 1 ½ minutes of very high strength radiation.   My job was just to relax and stay still.  And – fortunately, I was able to do just that.  Everything went off without a hitch and Dr. Koong was thrilled.

Tuesday wasn’t quite so easy.  I arrived at 5:30 to discover that the woman ahead of me was having a tremendous amount of trouble.  She had tumors in her lungs and they couldn’t get her to be still enough to radiate her.  It took 3 hours of trying and they finally gave up and told her to come back on Thursday.  While this was not ideal for me (since I still had a 2 hour drive back to Davis after my radiation), Dr. Koong and I ended up hanging out and hatching all kinds of plans together.  We are going to team up to introduce legislation that could have a significant impact on research universities (like my precious Stanford) and subsequently, cancer patients.  I can’t disclose our plans yet, but once we get our strategy in place, I’ll bring you all in on it (we may need to enlist your help).

Fortunately, the amazing techs were very quick in lining me up and my radiation was quick and easy and I was able to get back on the road to Davis.  I had 3 meetings that I was hosting in Sacramento the next day so I couldn’t stay in the Silicon Valley.   (A quick shout out to my dear friends Shelley & Woody who have let me crash at their beautiful home multiple times – including twice this week.)

Following my meetings on Wednesday I drove down once again and my radiation treatment was nice and uneventful.

As for the side effects – I was primarily a little queasy the first couple of days following the radiation.  Although Dr. Koong had prescribed Zofran for nausea, I refrained from taking it.  I really don’t like taking medication if I don’t absolutely have to do so.  My third night the radiation side effects hit my stomach pretty hard, but now that seems to have subsided and my body is back to normal.

On Thursday, I was back at the Stanford clinical trials building once again for my dose of PDL-1.  So – in a nutshell, this week, we started the process of breaking up my tumors (it takes a while for the radiation to have its full impact) enabling my immune system to get to the cancer and learn what it needs to fight.  On Thursday, we gave my immune system a major boost.  It’s now time for my body to fight this disease itself.

So, when will we know if this crazy theory worked?  No one knows.  It’s never been done before.  While Dr. Kohrt was estimating between 3-6 weeks, Dr. Koong thinks it could be between 4-6 months.    Bottom line, I need to be patient.   Ugh – that’s not so easy for me. 

But – I truly believe that it’s going to work.  A Rabbi’s wife that I have been fortunate to have befriended during this journey reminded me last week of the meaning of my Hebrew name: Chava Rafaella.  Chava means “mother of all life” and Rafaella means “God will heal.”  She said “You are your name.”  And, I fully intend to live up to that name.