Long story short: my chemotherapy regimen failed. The cancer I have is too aggressive to get results with standard treatment. So, the big rush has been on to find me an alternative therapy.
I have applied to be accepted into a clinical trial of CAR T therapy, which is an immunotherapy involving the genetic modification oh my blood's T cells. To that end, I have a huge week of testing, poking and prodding coming up at Moffitt Cancer Center, in Tampa. We go Sunday, stay over, and have a full day of tests on Monday. CT scan, PET scan, EEG, EKG, ultrasound, blood labs, interviews with social workers, psychiatrists, etc.
Stay over Monday night and have most of a day of testing on Tuesday. Then we come home until Thursday, and then return to the hotel in Tampa, for an early morning tumor biopsy on Friday. It won't be until late Friday until they decide whether or not I'll be accepted into this clinical trial.
Assuming I am, we will return to the hotel on Sunday night, preparatory to T cell harvesting on Monday. The collected T cells will be frozen, and sent to a lab in California for genetic modification. Seventeen days later those modified T cells come back and get reintroduced into my bloodstream. The expected side effects are severe, so they may need to keep me in the hospital for a couple of weeks....