I wasn't really sick, mostly just tired and
lethargic. After a few days, I felt better, but to my dismay, I still tested positive for COVID on December 21. I had no choice but to cancel my Christmas
lunch that day with my good friends and business associates, Bahar and Dave. I hope to
reschedule that soon.
A family Christmas get-together was planned at my son, Jeff's, place, so
I took another COVID test on Christmas morning. It was still positive! This was
a dilemma. What to do? After checking with the family, I decided to go to our
Christmas gathering wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. It turned
out great, and we all had a good time.
As the week wore on, I was feeling guilty and wondered whether I
had infected anyone with COVID on Christmas. So I texted everyone on Friday.
What I discovered was that almost everyone wasn't feeling well, but no one said
that they had COVID! I thought there might be one of two reasons for this:
either they didn't want to let me know because they knew I would feel terrible,
or they didn't really care whether they had COVID or not.
I'm beginning to think
it might be the second reason. Nobody takes a test to find out whether they have
the flu or a bad cold. They just deal with it until they get better. I think
it's becoming the same with COVID. Who cares why you don't feel good. You know
you'll feel better in a few days. Just deal with it. No matter what you have,
you don't want to cough in anyone's face until you feel better. Who needs a
test? Things have come a long way since the dark days of the COVID lockdown in
2020.
Except at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, that is. They still take this
very, very, very seriously. As it turns out, I have an appointment supposedly scheduled for this coming Wednesday, January 3. Ever since I was blacklisted, I've been wondering how I could
get back in their good graces.
To clear my sullied name, the trial coordinator, Alice, emailed me with their requirements. I had to take two COVID tests this weekend 24
hours apart, and if they were both negative, I would be allowed to grace their halls with my
presence on Wednesday.
So I took a Covid test yesterday, which fortunately was
negative. I took another one today which was still negative. Hooray! I emailed Alice back pictures of the two negative test results with time and date stamps.
Hopefully, this will be enough for me to pass muster. Fingers crossed! Now I just
hope that this three-week delay hasn't impeded my progress on the clinical
trial.
I said I would share any results I found about Dr. Richardson's paper at
the ASH Conference. I found two recent YouTube videos where he discusses the
clinical trial I'm on. Here are the links:
In both of these clips, he talks about two separate arms of the study, the
Daratumumab arm and the Elotuzumab arm. I'm not involved with the Elotuzumab
part, so you can ignore the last part of these videos.
If you get through the technical jargon, there are two major
takeaways from these results. First, the overall response rate to the
MeziDaradex trial is over 80%, up to 89% in some cohorts. This is remarkable!
The other takeaway is that these responses are durable and long-lasting, with
some patients still in remission over three years later. No wonder the staff at
Dana Farber are so excited about this trial. Now I just hope that I will see the
same benefits that most of the other patients have seen.
Wonderful update! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteFavour…Good mews that will continue. ……
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