Well last night I took Pat in to the hospital to be admitted. He has been running a fairly high temperature the last few days, and it hasn't gone away. With his white count being almost non-existent, it is very scary when he gets some sort of an infection in his body.
We were supposed to have an appointment with his doctor this morning to discuss his opinion. We wanted to talk to him about the different trial places we had to choose from, and which one he thought was our best option. Doctor Santala is an excellent doctor, and he had been treating Pat before we went to Oklahoma. We trust his opinion, and just wanted to know what he thought we should do. We also wanted to find out if there were any treatments he could get while we are here, to make his chances (of getting into some of these trials) better.
A few days ago, I read through some of the trials, and to my surprise, he can't even participate in two of the trials, because he fits the 'exclusion' criteria. One of them he is excluded from because he has an active infection, and is on antibiotics, and the other because he has Leukemia in his CNS (central nervous system). Wow...we definitely feel like the doctors in Oklahoma not only gave up, but really just don't care. She just handed us a stack of papers, and said 'be on your way, good luck.' Not literally of course, but I don't think she even went through any of these trials to see if they were a good fit for him, because if she did, I don't think those two would have even been printed off. I tried to read through them, and I'm not a doctor, so they are very confusing! I don't know what level his heart functions at, or what his liver functions at, or his lungs, and every other organ in between....infraction this, bilirubin levels that....I didn't even know where to begin! So with that all being said, I am glad Dr. Santala is going to look at them, and see if he can make sense out of it all.
I will keep everyone posted with progress. They drew some labs last night. I had them check his ammonia levels (the reason being, his levels were skyrocket a few weeks ago, and that is why he ended up in a coma). Just wanted to be safe, rather than sorry. Those levels are normal. His white blood cell count (wbc) was 0.0 and his platelets were low, so they did give him a couple units of platelets. Dr. Santala said this morning that they will run some more tests, and cultures. He hadn't had a chance to look over the trials, but said he would, and would let us know what he thought. That is really all I know right now.
On a more positive note...the Dinner the other night was great. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces! We had a pretty good turnout, and I'm glad Pat got to see how many people are behind him in this fight. We both even got to see people we haven't seen in years! Pat was exhausted by the end of the night (as to be expected). I was exhausted by the end of the night! All in all though, it was a good night. Thanks to everyone who was able to come, and to those who couldn't make it, but let it be known that we were in their thoughts....we appreciate it!
I will give updates as soon as I have them. Til next time...
Love
Jen :)
