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Old 09-23-2016, 08:28 AM   #14
Breeze
Grizzled Veteran
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL
September 13, 2016

I wake up, go to see Dr. MacDonald (the neurologist) only to realize I'm at the wrong office. During this morning he's in an office about half an hour away. So my stress goes way up...I try to call and let them know but they failed to switch off of after hours answering service. I got to the other office about 40 minutes late but they still took me.

When the dr. came in, I apologized for screwing up his schedule...he said not to worry about it.

After the obligatory questions of smoking, general health, etc...he brought up my brain scans to show me the spots in question. Initially, he only showed one...then he found one of the other two the radio-oncologist mentioned. Both we very tiny in basically the same location, front third, top outer edge, on opposite sides of the brain. The 3rd spot he said he didn't believe to be a lesion, but rather some vessels that have lived through 47 years of athletic life, and they don't need to treated.


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Later that same day, I went down to Emory for my meeting with Dr. Ramalingam (Dr. R). After a LONG wait. I was finally taken back. A pulmonologist that works in conjunction with Dr. R. did a pretty thorough exam, which I apparently passed, because she said that I "even now" seem to be in great shape.

Dr. R, came in and after his brief follow up questions, he started in on the clinical trial. Basically, with this trial I would be placed on the 1st ALK approved drug (which would probably have been my method of treatment anyway), but the difference here is I would also be placed on an immunotherapy drug (PB1). There two have never been used together before. The hope is the ALK targeted drug will impact the growth and spread of the disease, while the immunotherapy drug will rev up the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer cells.

After discussion with Dr. Reddy, as well as input from several other oncologists, I have decided to enter the trail. All have reported basically what I felt - there really is no drawback to this trial. Yes, by having 2 meds, my side effects will be greater, but the results could be better or better yet - could last longer.

Now I have to get the gamma knife done, then have a 2 week wash out period for the radiation to leave my system before I can start my treatments.

Last edited by Breeze : 09-23-2016 at 08:30 AM.
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