Vanderbilt Report

We got up bright and early and headed off to Melany's in Murfreesboro. Woody drove us to Murfreesboro and then Melany took over the driving. Woody first had x-rays of his upper left arm and then we saw Dr. Ginger Holt, Woody's orthopedic surgeon. She removed the melanoma tumor from his upper left arm and did all the "repair work" five months ago. She was very pleased with the way his arm had healed and said that everything looked great in the x-ray...no signs of any cancerous growth, no cracks in any of the bones. She said that everything looked "beautiful." Woody was relieved to hear that as she was then able to explain some of his pain. The pain in the upper arm and even in his neck is probably caused by the radiation. She gave an example of a roast cooking...we take it out of the oven and it continues to cook for a while. She said that radiation can continue to work for up to a year! She said that the radiation is doing things to the soft tissue...like making it contract and that causes mobility of the area radiated and the area around it to lessen and be painful. Woody had been concerned that the pain in his arm might be return of the cancer or that a bone might have cracked...so this visit took away that concern and he will be a bit more active in his "rehabbing" that area of his arm. He was concerned about the strength of his bones because he had never started up again on the Zometa (bone strengthener for chemo patients) after his IL-2 treatments. Dr. Holt is letting Dr. Sosman's office handle the Zometa treatments (which will happen in Tullahoma). Woody will see Dr. Holt again in six months.

After our visit with Dr. Holt, we trouped over to the Cancer Center to meet with Dr. Sosman's research nurse specialist who is getting things set up for the drug study Woody will be taking part in. She met with us in the waiting room and explained the drug study to us and then left us with the papers to read and then for Woody to sign if he was going to get on board with the study. She also talked to him about pain management with his pain pills. He's going to try taking the pain medication as she suggested and then if that doesn't work then he will go talk to someone in pain management at Vandy. She is also giving the information about the Cancer Clinic here in Tullahoma to Dr. Sosman's nurse so Zometa treatments can get restarted.

Woody, of course, signed the consent form and it looks like the ball is going to start rolling. At the moment the nurse is trying to get Woody in for the preliminary tests (lab work and scans) that have to be done no more than 14 days before the study begins. These tests may happen as soon as next week. The drug/s are oral so will be able to be taken at home...except for the initial dose. Woody will have to go to Vandy to take the first dose...have lab work done first, then take the medicine, then wait around for several hours to see how the med is affecting him, then more lab work (I think). He will have to go to Vanderbilt weekly for tests after he gets started in the drug study cycle. Anyway...the study for Woody may be starting in about three weeks. There's lots to read and we haven't absorbed it all yet!

Some interesting things we learned: there are 300 people taking part in this drug study all over the country. Ten of those will be at Vanderbilt. Two have already started the study at Vanderbilt. It is a randomized study (like flipping a coin). All will take one chemo drug; then 1/3 will also take 20mg twice-a-day of the study drug; 1/3 will also take 40mg twice-a-day of the study drug; and 1/3 will also take a placebo twice-a-day. So he has a 2/3 chance of taking the drug that they are studying. But it is still a win/win situation as the drug that everyone takes has been shown to be effective in fighting metastatic melanoma.

Ok, I think that is enough for tonight about all this. I will summarize more of it when I absorb more of what we were told today. Besides killing two birds with one stone at Vanderbilt, we also stopped and ate lunch out on our way back to Murfreesboro, then stopped at Melany's and Woody, Melany, Erin & Alex all played Scrabble while I rested and took pictures in Melany's gardens. Then Woody drove us home from Murfreesboro. So it has been a very full day and we are both very tired tonight!