Plan F (I think)

We have a bumper sticker on our SUV that says "Life is all about how you handle plan B." I love it. It suits us, although our 'plans' are inching down the alphabet and I've pretty much lost track of how far. Yesterday we set sights on yet another. Plan F, maybe?


We traveled this week to St. Louis for Mr. 1inamillion's CT scan and appointment. I don't spend time wondering about what the results will be, I simply pray, hope and focus on the road ahead. Dane spends a lot of time wondering, and he usually knows what the results will be. Just as he suspected, yesterday wasn't good news. There was a bit of growth and a new lesion on his right lung. It all is still very small and still in the same region. So it's not good news but it's not horrific, either. It just boils down to a new plan.


We spent close to three hours in a tiny patient exam room hashing out the next course of treatment. There was a clinical trial that the doctor attempted to get him in, but it required him to be 'unblinded' from the previous study in which he participated. The last clinical trial was a double-blind study and we believe he was in the placebo group, but can't confirm it. Much of our time was spent waiting while the doctor fought it out with the drug company. He lost and without that confirmation, Dane's ineligible to participate. We determined he would go on a established chemo drug, dacarbazine. An oldie but a goodie for sarcoma patients. Good being defined by a 40% response rate. Not quite a coin toss but far better than my odds at the slots.


Mr. 1inamillion will be part of a study at Siteman that focuses on PET scan monitoring in conjunction with dacarbazine. (PET scans look at how the tumors process glucose, monitoring the behavior of the lesions while a CT scan really just measures size and shape.) Participation in the study means driving the eight hours to St. Louis every three weeks for the chemo treatment and getting the scan on every third cycle. It could be done in Wichita because it is a standard regimen but participating in the study requires treatment be done there. It's a long drive, and I imagine it will be much longer for him post treatment.


You might wonder, why bother? It's in the name. He's a rare breed. If he's not willing to offer himself to teach them, when will they learn? When will there be progress and when will they find his cure? He's one in a million. He has to be the one to say, 'Yes! I'll do whatever it takes to help you find my cure.' All I have to do is coordinate the plan, pray, hope and drive.