"Near Complete Response"

Hans had a "Near Complete Response"! aka 2 MIBG therapies in San Francisco got rid of all but just a teensy spot of the cancer left in that stubborn spot on his skull. No more cancer in his hip. No more cancer in the vertebrae. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and good vibes, people! Next stop... Antibodies in Los Angeles, we hope. We found out today that Hans approved for the anitbodies by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), but now he also has to go through the hoops to be approved by the FDA and CHLA's Interal Review Board (IRB)... The time line is to have Hans on the therapy, off label, by mid May. Hans would be excluded from the formal trial due to his Adrenal Insufficency/steroid usage in stressful situations. We shall see.

In the mean time, we are dropping down to counts once per week. He is making a slow recovery from his stem cell infusion on 3/6/12. Platelets were 44 this week, HGB in the 10's and ANC was about 4000! The docs are pleased and will hold off on a second stem cell transfusion until levels flatline or decline.

That's about the most coherent statement I can come up with tonight. Not to whine, but rather to document this event for the future, Hans got very sick today at clinic. As soon as he started to sip on the oral contrast, Hans started to get queasy. He proceeded to get pretty sick and vomit several times today. We had to forgo the oral contrast for the first time:( He was so sick/out of it that we had to bump the CT scan until late in the day. Oh well, we got all the scans done. We got the results. I don't know if it is random, or if he's going to have some kind of sensitivity to oral contrast from now on. We are wrapping our minds around Antibodies now that it finally appears to be a reality to us. More on all that later...