Press On

Just over three years ago I think I said the same thing: “One down.” Little did I know how difficult and, in many ways, magical the road would be. Today, the last day of this first course of the investigational Aurora A Kinase inhibitor, Patrick awoke unable to walk without significant pain. He is apparently suffering from hand and foot syndrome, which is a known side effect of chemotherapy and kinase inhibitors in particular. Fortunately, his pain is controlled with Tylenol III. We learned through research today that emollients and maybe vitamin B6 can help. We will discuss this issue with Dr. Maris and do all we can to maintain his current dose. To put this small matter in perspective, we are together at home (not a subset in NYC), not nauseated (like recent chemo), not on dilaudid (like 3F8 induced neuropathy), without port access, and otherwise doing well. The very good news is that Patrick’s CBC was unchanged from Monday. His hemoglobin, platelets, and absolute neutrophil count were great – as in normal for you and me. We only hope the drug was much more punitive of NB cells. We look forward to the MIBG scan! SRC