A "Path" has been chosen

We had our appointment with Dr. Jeffrey Sosman at Vanderbilt on Monday (Jan. 12th). Lots of questions were asked and information gathered. Woody has chosen to take Interleukin 2 (IL-2). This will mean a stay of 5 days in the hospital at Vanderbilt, then come home for 7, then back to the hospital for another 5 days. He is scheduled to go into the hospital on February 11th. There is a slight possibility that he will go into the hospital on January 27th if someone cancels out on their treatment. Vanderbilt only schedules three patients at a time for this treatment, as it takes special nursing skills to take care of the IL-2 patients. I will be staying with him at the hospital at the request of the doctors (and of course because I want to!). One of the side effects of taking this drug is that it sometimes causes confusion and they want someone who knows the patient well to be there to let them know when the patient isn't acting like themself. Woody says that he will be sure to tell them when I'm not acting like myself!

Interleukin 2 is one of the few FDA approved treatments for melanoma. It is given by infusion every 8 hours with the hopes of having 14 infusions in a 5 day period. It is such a strong drug that most individuals' bodies aren't able to tolerate all 14 infusions--so the patient ends up having less treatments in the 5 days.

Interleukin 2 is a biologic therapy (recombinent DNA) rather than a chemotherapy. Chemotherapy breaks down the cells. Interleukin 2 builds the immune system with the hope that the immune system will recognize the good cells and destroy the bad cells. Chemotherapy doesn't make that distinction.

This treatment has severe side effects. But the side effects are short lived in comparison to many other treatments such as chemotherapy. Dr. Sosman told Woody that if he had started Interleukin 2 on January 1 that he would be feeling like himself again by mid February.

20%+ of the patients who take Interleukin 2 see a regression in their tumors and a remission at least for a period of time. There is only a 5-10% cure rate. Melanoma is pretty tough to beat to say the least!

Dr. Sosman has a concern about the melanoma that is in the bone in Woody's upper left arm. Next Tuesday (Jan. 20th) Woody will be seeing Dr. Ginger Holt, an orthopedic oncologist at Vandy.

So we are now in what I call "the Vandy loop." One specialist doctor visit leads to another and another and...

I hope that this explains a little about what Woody is facing. It's not going to be easy, but I know that we will get through it--God will see to it! We do appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.