Just in the nick of time (before I did something I would regret later), like fire off a blistering email to everyone including the NC State Patrol, I finally got the call from Dr. Dan George’s nurse practitioner, Sarah Wood. Sitting here, red in the face and feeling like my head is in a vice, maybe now I can calm down a bit now that I know we’re on the way to Duke for the next chapter in this cancer book.
We will leave here this Sunday, August 26, and meet appointments at Duke on Monday at midday with Dr. Dan George and in the afternoon with Dr. Michael Morse. I just sent them all my scan, lab and pathology reports from our very recent trip to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center so that I can maybe dodge having to do another round of scans so soon. In addition to these reports, they’ll need to do some pulmonary testing on me to make sure my heart is healthy enough to withstand the HD-IL2 treatment. I’ve never had a cardiac issue and I’ve been able to ride my bicycle and walk briskly, so I should qualify well enough. The only issue I’m concerned about is my creatinine (kidney function).
These tests/scans should take 2-3 days. That gets us out to Thursday or Friday of next week. With the Labor Day holiday on Monday, I don’t know whether they’ll want to start treatment on Monday or Tuesday. So, we’ll likely come home if we get out of there on Thursday. I’m so relieved to at least know we’ve got a plan in place and that it will begin to be implemented soon.
Sorry for the short post, but I wanted to let everyone know about our scheduling.