CAL-101: Day 8
John has been taking CAL-101 for a week now. We had an office visit this morning for bloodwork and another seven-day supply of his medicine. So far, so good.
I didn't write about it right away on my blog because I didn't want to jump the gun, but John and I both noticed his lymph nodes start to respond after one day of taking this drug. It's hard to believe how much they have gone down in just one week. And his blood was fine this morning. His white count did go up (as expected), but it had still been low following the chemo. So it's dead-center normal now (7.0). His neutrophils are still low (1.9), though not dangerously low. (Neutrophils protect us from infection.) All John's other counts are within the low-normal range.
I can't honestly say that he is feeling better yet. He is still very tired. But he is only four months out from six cycles of chemotherapy. Dr. Flinn told us it would take six months to a year for him to feel like himself again after chemo ended. And it hasn't been that long. I feel hopeful that he will notice a big improvement in how he feels in the near future. He has been walking and running on the treadmill this week. And that was something he had stopped doing just prior to starting chemo. I know he's having to push himself to do it, but I'm really pleased that he can. For many weeks, he told me that he knew he needed to be doing it, but he just couldn't.
I am so thankful CAL-101 exists and that John was eligible to receive it. Although there is no longterm data yet, the short term results are quite impressive. And I'm thrilled with the results John has gotten already.
I have never been completely without hope. But this diagnosis rocked me to the core initially and I have had to walk through many fearful days. Yet I am feeling more hopeful about the future than I have in quite some time.
Hope feels SO good. There aren't words to describe the peaks or the valleys of this journey.
Thank you for your prayers.
I didn't write about it right away on my blog because I didn't want to jump the gun, but John and I both noticed his lymph nodes start to respond after one day of taking this drug. It's hard to believe how much they have gone down in just one week. And his blood was fine this morning. His white count did go up (as expected), but it had still been low following the chemo. So it's dead-center normal now (7.0). His neutrophils are still low (1.9), though not dangerously low. (Neutrophils protect us from infection.) All John's other counts are within the low-normal range.
I can't honestly say that he is feeling better yet. He is still very tired. But he is only four months out from six cycles of chemotherapy. Dr. Flinn told us it would take six months to a year for him to feel like himself again after chemo ended. And it hasn't been that long. I feel hopeful that he will notice a big improvement in how he feels in the near future. He has been walking and running on the treadmill this week. And that was something he had stopped doing just prior to starting chemo. I know he's having to push himself to do it, but I'm really pleased that he can. For many weeks, he told me that he knew he needed to be doing it, but he just couldn't.
I am so thankful CAL-101 exists and that John was eligible to receive it. Although there is no longterm data yet, the short term results are quite impressive. And I'm thrilled with the results John has gotten already.
I have never been completely without hope. But this diagnosis rocked me to the core initially and I have had to walk through many fearful days. Yet I am feeling more hopeful about the future than I have in quite some time.
Hope feels SO good. There aren't words to describe the peaks or the valleys of this journey.
Thank you for your prayers.
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