We started the morning with a visit with Jocelyn, Dr. Dude's new Physician's Assistant. We really love his medical team. Nurse Cathy instantly starts joking with us about whatever Alan is saying or doing at the moment, usually being his normal goofball self. Some of the employees of MDA don't know what to make of Alan's attitude and how much laughter we bring with us. Jocelyn quickly adapted to us. We discussed the side effects we are seeing in great detail. They are very minor so that's awesome.
We laid out the dates of future treatments and scans more clearly. This was good because we were confused on when exactly he would start the nivoonly treatments. The week of Sept 24 Alan will have a CT Scan, an appt for results and if all is good, his first nivo only treatment. His last treatment of both meds is set for Sept 7th.
The other important thing about this appointment was the results of the genetic molecular testing on his original tumor. As usual, Alan is a...
His tumor is HIGHLY MUTATED! Soooo my unicorn is a mutant unicorn. His tumor had 22 genetic markers that were mutated and 3 of those had two mutations.
So what does that really mean? We don't fully know! Jocelyn said that there is some evidence that highly mutated tumors respond better to immunotherapy! So that was nice to hear. Additionally, this may open doors to potential second or third tier treatments. Right now this treatment regimen is the only known option today to heal him. So having backup options would be nice if this treatment were to fail or stop working at some point in the future.
These results were our hope. That they would open doors. Hopefully we will know more about what those doors might be at his next treatment.
Before treatment began, Alan struck up a conversation with Gloria. This turned out to be a very hard conversation for me. Gloria sat near us taking a break during her long walk from her car to her husband's room. Robert has been admitted for bladder cancer that is quite agressive and spread extrensively. Please pray for Gloria and Robert.
While we were talking, she mentioned that her first husband passed of colon cancer. At this point, I disengaged. I hated to but I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself to connect with this woman. She had no clue what cancer Alan had. But I couldn't connect with her because I can't handle the thoughts that immediately started flooding my head.
After a few minutes I reengaged in the conversation, listening but not participating. Before it was over, Alan prayed for them and Gloria hugged us.
After she left, we just sat there and I cried. Alan asked if I wanted to talk. I declined. He asked again last night. I still haven't. On our anniversary, I can't bring myself to talk about Gloria and what that conversation did to me.
BUT regardless of our circumstances, Alan is always looking for who God is placing in our path that he can be used to minister to and show God's love. I love the example my husband sets for me. He exemplifies Christ daily. I am grateful for that witness and long to be more like Christ because of Alan's witness.
Please join us in praying for Gloria and Robert.
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