Sluggish cells

We received a call from Woody's doctor at NIH this morning. He said that they had looked at the cells again and that they didn't look good...that they had started growing when they were supposed to, but that the growth had slowed down...and that the cells didn't look good...that they looked sluggish. They don't want to deplete Woody's immune system and then give back poor cells.

So on to the next plan. The doctor decided to have Woody come back next week. He will have blood work and CT scans Tuesday morning, and then see the doctors and research nurse Tuesday afternoon. They will decide at that time if another of Woody's tumors is a good size to remove. If they decide that there is one they can use, he will probably have surgery to remove it on Wednesday. Then the growing process will begin all over again. The doctor said that they will try two different times to grow cells, but if this second attempt fails then Woody won't be in this study. If they decide that there isn't a tumor of the correct size, then we will just come on home.

The other study that both NIH and Dr. Sosman have recommended would take place in Knoxville. I emailed our Vanderbilt research nurse to see about getting Woody on a list for that one. She said that there wasn't a waiting list and that it usually took about a week to get an appointment to be screened for that program. We have decided to wait on signing up for it till after we see if he is taken out of the current NIH study.

Of course, this put me back on the phone to try to get hotel reservations. I had to call quite a few places till I found what sounded like a reasonable rate. Accomplished that with a lot less problems than the last time. And, there is a hotel shuttle to NIH at this hotel.

Woody got up early, as usual, went to work, worked, walked at lunch, worked some more and came home to rest and relax. He had a time of intense pain earlier in the evening. He is now downstairs working on a crossword puzzle. I am to go help him with the crossword, after I blog!

Woody decided on the title for tonight's blog...then he went out to find a slug...and then I had to take a picture of the slimy thing! Not my favorite of God's creatures!