The Set-Back

Alison was in a lot of pain yesterday, but her spirits were high enough to pose for a few snapshots while she was eating gob-stoppers on the examination table.

(We have had lots of time to ourselves waiting for the doctors)My spirits were high too, thinking that we're actually going to start forward-motion against her cancer. I even wrote a little about the doctor who conducted the interview. The plan was good too, to extract her stem cells, radiate her to kill the cancer, and re-inject the stem cells to keep her healthy.

Then the stem-cell technician/doctor came in and talked to us. Here's what he said:

I do not think that collecting your stem cells is the best course of action. We'd inevitably collect cancerous cells in our extraction. Then when they killed the cancer, we'd give it back to you.

Of course, we asked questions as to why this was true, to which he responded:

Your I-131 MIBG scan lit up your entire skeleton.

Basically, there is no battle line behind which he could extract some of the good soldiers only to re-deploy them when needed. Of course, we hoped that the cancerous marrow was limited to where the bone-scan showed activity: in the pelvis and lower spine. So I asked if the special iodide could have bonded to more than the cancer. Could it have taken to the bones without it meaning that it's binding to the cancer?

No. For instance, if we were to inject you with this radioactive material, it wouldn't bind to your bones at all.

I asked about siblings donating their stem cells. (Alison's sister will be here next week) To this he said:

Samples of siblings wouldn't work; there is no exact match and in order to make it work they'd suppress her immune system, creating good conditions for a wildfire with her cancer. Stem-cell collection is always a possibility. It's easy and they can do it anytime; however, I told your oncologist that I didn't think it was a good course of action.

He thanked us and then left. Left with no resolution. Left with a big hit to our spirits. I knew he couldn't give us what we wanted. He could give no answer. The other doctors on Alison's team must now decide the best course of action.

So we drove home (multiple hours). Alison slept most of the way; she's still in a great deal of pain. I called the other doctors on the team, trying to spur them into their conference. I was trying to give them a sense of urgency. It rained on the way home, and I thought about what it all meant. Really, we learned nothing that we didn't already know. Well, except that 90 percent of Alison's marrow is cancerous. But even that is unsubstantiated. I haven't seen the pictures yet. And for me, seeing is believing. Our Duke Oncologist HAD warned us that the ABMT center may not view Alison as a good case. Though we didn't learn anything, and we technically knew all they told us, I still perceived the engagement as a set-back.

So we'll let you know what happens from here.