Conferring with Cleveland: A Brief Journey to NYC (part two)

As I stated in the previous installment of the blog, Dr. J felt that there was a need to switch up the meds in my treatment. This afternoon, I spent a bit of time with Dr. V and we discussed all of that information that was exchanged on Wednesday. 

While he completely understands the rationale behind switching up the meds, he feels that the level of disease that is present in my body is not actually doing any damage; that since there is no movement there, we can continue the RVD until my response changes for the negative and evidence shows that I am no longer responding to that cocktail. He doesn't want to introduce the new meds until it is absolutely necessary because in doing so, should I develop a resistance to those, we will need to take them out of the arsenal. 

This totally makes sense to me. 

Dr. V is totally on board with Dr. J's recommendation that we do another bone marrow biopsy (whee!!!) and that we send a sample on to the (something something) Foundation (not the IMF) to have it picked apart and have the DNA analysed. This will yield some answers as to what medicines may be able to penetrate this stubborn bastard living in my body and help put me back into full remission. At the end of the day, these answers may jive with Dr. J's treatment recommendation and we end up taking that route. We shall have more information to support that course of action and it won't be Cleveland taking orders from New York and New York not fully understanding the patient's history. 

This also makes sense and I think it is a wise move by both parties. 

When I brought up Dr. J's feelings on the CAR-T cell therapy and how I was shocked by his views, Dr. V also thought it was rather shocking as many research centres are reporting quite a high success rate with the folks who are undergoing the clinical trials. Again, this is one physician's opinion and I guess we shall see how things play out as the trials progress. At the moment, it seems like the therapy will be approved by the FDA. We shall see. 

So! What happens next? I have a bone marrow biopsy scheduled for the afternoon of 30 April and I await the results of this aspiration. 

Let's drill for oil again!