Sorry for the lack of update. There really hasn't been anything to update. For the most part, Alan's recovery is slow and steady. He is at a "new" normal. He is back working full time with a couple of days remote. He's going to the gym some to rebuild his strength. Losing 35 lbs, most of which was muscle has left him on a mission to regain that strength!
Right now we are navigating follow up appts on some lingering side effects of the surgery and the HIPEC. They happen over the next few weeks.
Besides that, we just make allowances for the fatigue from long days or weeks. We have learned that when he has an especially long day or week, he needs more rest in the evenings or downtime on the weekend. While that is challenging with two active teens and their activities, they are wonderfully helpful and understanding.
Dr. Morris and the trial team are trying to figure out what is going on with the CT DNA test. We were suppose to have results at the beginning of the year, but still do not. From what we have gathered from the messages with them, Alan's mucinous tumor is providing major challenges for the trial team. We are hoping they get the issues resolved soon and take a new blood sample since the blood sample they have is from 11/18, almost 4 months ago. At this point the results from that sample would be outdated. Please pray with us for clear answers soon.
For those of you that don't remember, the trial takes his tumor and spins it up to separate out all the mutations and then they spin up and compare his blood samples to see if they have any of the same mutations. If not, yay - no cancer currently! If so, they begin the process of developing a therapeutic vaccine tailored to him specific mutations. This will take 4-6 months to create. Then they give him the vaccine in conjunction with some immunotherapy and other drugs.
The waiting game to see if he really is cancer free is frustrating. While we wait, my hair continues to have blue for colon cancer awareness.
-Mel
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