March Madness

Hi there, 

Just a quick update of what's going on over on Signal Mountain. Mom promises she will send out a more personal update soon, so I'll stick to the facts.

The 'chemo light' (aka dacogen) that mom has been on since leaving Vanderbilt last summer has done her pretty well. Her leukemic blasts went down fairly dramatically, though doctors do not expect this regimen to put her into remission. 

For that, she first tried a drug called Ipilimumab, which is a drug that has been wildly successful for some people and some types of cancers. Unfortunately, after two rounds of this drug at a hospital in Atlanta, she was told that it wasn't working for her. 

Her doctors at Vanderbilt had been looking for other options and found one at Sarah Cannon in Nashville. This drug is an inhibitor drug that inhibits the body's production of a protein that cancer cells need to thrive. This protein is one that normal cells do not need. It is therefore less toxic than any type of chemotherapy, but has been shown to halt the proliferation of cancer cells. In some cases, it has killed cancer cells by starving them. We are hopeful that this will work for her.

She just began this regimen this week. It will mean a weekly trip to Nashville for a couple months, then more infrequent trips up there. 

A number of you have been asking about meal delivery. We have re-activated the meal train account to coordinate this should you be interested. Please see instructions below. She could also use companions for the trips to Nashville if anyone is interested in helping out that way!

Thanks again for your support and prayers. 

Callie

To sign up for a meal, follow this link http://www.mealtrain.com?id=mmu8tlctd31t and create an account for MealTrain. (I believe there is also an option to sign in with your Facebook account) Once you create the account or sign in, you will see a list of dates that you can choose from. Click "Book this Date" if there is a day that works for you.