When you have cancer which does not respond to treatment typically or as anticipated, you can then be classified as having Refractory Disease.
re·frac·to·ry
rəˈfrakt(ə)rē/
adjective
formal
adjective: refractory
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1.stubborn or unmanageable.“his refractory pony”
synonyms: obstinate, stubborn, mulish, pigheaded, obdurate, headstrong, self-willed, wayward, willful, perverse, contrary, recalcitrant, obstreperous, disobedient, difficult; informalbalky;archaiccontumacious, froward“their refractory children”antonyms: obedient
- 2.
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resistant to a process or stimulus.“some granules are refractory to secretory stimuli”
Now maybe its just because I have two 16-year-olds, but refractory sounds like a teenager to me! Apparently, I am stuck with the teenager of cancers. As last noted, I had some success with chemo, but then I backslid, and in the end, it was not effective.
There were a few delays getting a clinical trial up and going at Northwestern. I had to go through tons of tests and scans. It turns out it is harder to get into a clinical trial than it is to get into Harvard! You can not have any other significant illnesses which may impact results, you have to be sick but not too sick…… After tabulating my many results, it turns out I am healthy as a horse, except for a little Lymphoma! So I was accepted into the trial and started last week. I am taking two pills a day of a drug which has shown some positive results but is not yet on the market.
The goal of this drug is to stop the progression of my cancer. Then I will still have to go back and get rid of existing cancer. It is not clear if I will do that by returning to a new type of chemo or possibly through the new and exciting field of immunology. I feel good participating in this trial because even if it is not the answer for me, I will hopefully be providing data to get this drug on the market to help someone else.
A big part of this trial is to analyze how the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream. So every few weeks I get to go sit and take my pill then have blood samples taken frequently for 6 hours.
I went in yesterday for bloodwork and found out my counts had dropped very low again as they had after chemo. So for the next few days, I can not have visitors or go anywhere to prevent infection. I go in and get tested again next week and hopefully they will have gone back up. If not I will be given medication or a transfusion if necessary. I hope I am able to continue in this trial because I have been feeling a little better and I feel it is helping. In a couple more weeks it will be time for another PET body scan and then I will get a clearer idea of what is going on.
Exercises in Equanimity 