Mid-Week Update from Stanford

Greg is doing great.  As of this morning he has had 5 out of 5 doses.  Dr. Srinivas said that he will most likely get less than 8 doses this week (since that is the number he had last time and it almost always decreases), but he doing pretty well.  We asked the NP if she also thought he would get less doses and she said, "well, actually, since I started working here, you are the first IL-2 patient I have seen that responded and came back for a second round, so I'm not really sure." We are so grateful for that!!

The worst symptom, the rigors, has been much reduced this time....so far.  They just had to take him off one medication that really helps for that because of kidney stress, so we will see how it goes from here.  We found ourselves wishing that we could just power through 7 in a row and then go home tomorrow, but that is not how it works.  He will probably start skipping a few doses due to his reduced kidney function - the toxic levels creep up with every new dose.  This allows his kidney a little more time to clear out some of the medication before being hit with more.  But for now we are so grateful that it hasn't been as horrible as last time.  Greg is way ahead in the mental game this time - there is just something easier about going though physical torment when you know that it is actually doing something.