Well folks, I wrote a really long blog on Tuesday, and then when I went to publish it, something happened with my connection and I lost EVERYTHING I wrote!! Talk about frustrating. Lorne suggested I write everything in word and then cut and paste it into my blog… now why didn’t I think of that? The man is BRILLIANT, even in his weakened state!
We have had an absolute roller coaster ride these last few days. Lorne’s belly blew up like a balloon on Saturday after his treatments and there were concerns he was “leaking” fluids into the sac that contains all the intestines and what not. That would not have been good. They did an x-ray and determined it was just really bad constipation brought on by the high dose vitamin treatments. He threw up anything he put in, including water. So they put him on an electrolyte drip and suspended treatments for a day (two days really because of Easter). So he had no treatments Sunday or Monday. By Tuesday he felt well enough to resume treatments. BAM! Same thing happened after he completed those treatments! That brings us to today. He hasn’t thrown up since last night so that is good but it has been a constant battle. Best we can figure, when he does a treatment, he gets so clogged up that there is no room for anything and whatever he puts in simply must come out. It’s crazy and it’s making him just miserable. Even the anti-nausea medication they give him doesn’t work. He’s not really nauseous; he just doesn’t have any more room! He hasn’t really eaten a meal in quite a few days now. He eats a piece of cantaloupe or a bite of lettuce and it is immediately purged.
So this morning they did his last ozone and UV irradiation treatment and then they did the blood harvest for his vaccines. They took a whole lotta blood, and then they will separate out the different types of white blood cells, Natural Killer (NK) cells, and dendritic cells. They will also separate out the tumor circulating cells. Then they send these cells off to be grown, or cultured. They will cultivate many millions more NK cells which will then be sensitized to the tumor cells, like a police dog getting the scent of the perpetrator. In essence, the new NK cells will be on the hunt for the specific cancer cells in Lorne’s body. Except now his NK cells will be able to “see” the bad guys and “know” they need to be attacked and annihilated. Cancer has a few different ways it cloaks itself to the immune system, but this vaccine essentially de-cloaks it.
The other thing they will be doing while the culture is being propagated is modulating his immune system. They tested his white blood cells to see what his current ratio of regulatory to NK cells is. Apparently, cancer patients typically have too many regulatory white blood cells, and not enough NK cells. The analogy that was used to explain it to me was: it’s like an over-bloated bureaucracy where nothing can get done because there is too much regulation in the way! So these regulatory white blood cells need to be brought down to around a 12% ratio of the total white blood cell count, right now he is at 18%. The idea is to get all these regulatory cells out of the way so the new NK cells can do their jobs. They achieve this with a very low dose chemo drug that only affects these regulatory cells and not the NK cells. It will take 2-3 days to get his ratio correct so they plan to start him on that drug today and continue it until they start the vaccines. They will also do one more hyperthermia session on Friday, give him a day to recover from that, and then they will administer the first of 3 vaccine injections on Saturday if possible, or Monday if not. Then again on two more days during the next week. I think they like to put 1 or 2 days in between the vaccines.
Meanwhile, we are just trying to manage his pain, his vomiting and his intestinal problems. I will tell you one thing, I’ve never met a man more determined to meet a challenge. Yesterday, he was determined to walk down to the ocean. It’s not that long of a walk, but when you are so bloated and in pain, it’s not a pleasant experience. But they said he needs to walk to help keep things moving, so walk he shall! He made it too! The way there wasn’t too bad but the way back?? Uh… not so much. But he was darn well going to do it and he darn well did. That is the essence of Lorne. He is just a “get it done” kind of person. We went for a walk this morning too and he was much better than yesterday, and with all the vitamin treatments done now, he should feel better every day. I have no idea how the vaccines make you feel, but they claim there are no side effects at all. And the low dose chemo they use to modulate his immune system is about 1/40th of a normal dose, so there are no side effects there either (so they say). I don’t know, I’ve seen a lot of chemo drugs at differing doses over the last year or so and they ALL look like side effect city to me! I believe chemo kills the host before it kills the cancer so I’m glad they don’t use it at “therapeutic levels”, just enough to help the vaccine do its job properly.
Well, that’s all for now. I just pray he will feel better as the days moves along. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to take away his pain and suffering and it is just the hardest thing to watch. I think the only thing I can do now is wait and pray. When we get home, it will be all about the diet, and lots and lots of juicing. He might come to work with a gallon of juice every day, or maybe even the juicer and a bucket of veggies. Oh won’t he love THAT!
Take care of yourselves and I will try to write more tonight or tomorrow morning to let you know how he’s doing, as the sketchy internet will allow!
With love,
Sean
We have had an absolute roller coaster ride these last few days. Lorne’s belly blew up like a balloon on Saturday after his treatments and there were concerns he was “leaking” fluids into the sac that contains all the intestines and what not. That would not have been good. They did an x-ray and determined it was just really bad constipation brought on by the high dose vitamin treatments. He threw up anything he put in, including water. So they put him on an electrolyte drip and suspended treatments for a day (two days really because of Easter). So he had no treatments Sunday or Monday. By Tuesday he felt well enough to resume treatments. BAM! Same thing happened after he completed those treatments! That brings us to today. He hasn’t thrown up since last night so that is good but it has been a constant battle. Best we can figure, when he does a treatment, he gets so clogged up that there is no room for anything and whatever he puts in simply must come out. It’s crazy and it’s making him just miserable. Even the anti-nausea medication they give him doesn’t work. He’s not really nauseous; he just doesn’t have any more room! He hasn’t really eaten a meal in quite a few days now. He eats a piece of cantaloupe or a bite of lettuce and it is immediately purged.
So this morning they did his last ozone and UV irradiation treatment and then they did the blood harvest for his vaccines. They took a whole lotta blood, and then they will separate out the different types of white blood cells, Natural Killer (NK) cells, and dendritic cells. They will also separate out the tumor circulating cells. Then they send these cells off to be grown, or cultured. They will cultivate many millions more NK cells which will then be sensitized to the tumor cells, like a police dog getting the scent of the perpetrator. In essence, the new NK cells will be on the hunt for the specific cancer cells in Lorne’s body. Except now his NK cells will be able to “see” the bad guys and “know” they need to be attacked and annihilated. Cancer has a few different ways it cloaks itself to the immune system, but this vaccine essentially de-cloaks it.
The other thing they will be doing while the culture is being propagated is modulating his immune system. They tested his white blood cells to see what his current ratio of regulatory to NK cells is. Apparently, cancer patients typically have too many regulatory white blood cells, and not enough NK cells. The analogy that was used to explain it to me was: it’s like an over-bloated bureaucracy where nothing can get done because there is too much regulation in the way! So these regulatory white blood cells need to be brought down to around a 12% ratio of the total white blood cell count, right now he is at 18%. The idea is to get all these regulatory cells out of the way so the new NK cells can do their jobs. They achieve this with a very low dose chemo drug that only affects these regulatory cells and not the NK cells. It will take 2-3 days to get his ratio correct so they plan to start him on that drug today and continue it until they start the vaccines. They will also do one more hyperthermia session on Friday, give him a day to recover from that, and then they will administer the first of 3 vaccine injections on Saturday if possible, or Monday if not. Then again on two more days during the next week. I think they like to put 1 or 2 days in between the vaccines.
Meanwhile, we are just trying to manage his pain, his vomiting and his intestinal problems. I will tell you one thing, I’ve never met a man more determined to meet a challenge. Yesterday, he was determined to walk down to the ocean. It’s not that long of a walk, but when you are so bloated and in pain, it’s not a pleasant experience. But they said he needs to walk to help keep things moving, so walk he shall! He made it too! The way there wasn’t too bad but the way back?? Uh… not so much. But he was darn well going to do it and he darn well did. That is the essence of Lorne. He is just a “get it done” kind of person. We went for a walk this morning too and he was much better than yesterday, and with all the vitamin treatments done now, he should feel better every day. I have no idea how the vaccines make you feel, but they claim there are no side effects at all. And the low dose chemo they use to modulate his immune system is about 1/40th of a normal dose, so there are no side effects there either (so they say). I don’t know, I’ve seen a lot of chemo drugs at differing doses over the last year or so and they ALL look like side effect city to me! I believe chemo kills the host before it kills the cancer so I’m glad they don’t use it at “therapeutic levels”, just enough to help the vaccine do its job properly.
Well, that’s all for now. I just pray he will feel better as the days moves along. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to take away his pain and suffering and it is just the hardest thing to watch. I think the only thing I can do now is wait and pray. When we get home, it will be all about the diet, and lots and lots of juicing. He might come to work with a gallon of juice every day, or maybe even the juicer and a bucket of veggies. Oh won’t he love THAT!
Take care of yourselves and I will try to write more tonight or tomorrow morning to let you know how he’s doing, as the sketchy internet will allow!
With love,
Sean