Time has been racing by and Chris has made a couple of trips to Rochester, so we thought I should make a quick update on how things are going... 

Christopher made a round trip to Rochester yesterday and received his second round of immunotherapy. When he made his previous trip three weeks ago, his numbers from his blood draw didn't look good so they decided he shouldn't receive the treatment at that time. His thyroid numbers were starting to change, but this wasn't a surprise and Dr. Ho had said that was something to continue to watch with each blood draw prior to treatment.  The numbers that kept him from treatment were in regards to his liver. Side bar note to this, is that the timing was just slightly unfortunate. We had only just returned less than a couple days prior from an all inclusive trip with my work family celebrating the end of tax season. The vacation sweet drinks and cocktails just proved to be too much, too close to treatment.  The immunotherapy drug that Chris receives makes him very sensitive to the alcohol, and that was very evident in the blood work results.  To be sure it wasn't a liver damage side effect of the drug, Chris had a blood draw in Sioux Falls the week following to monitor his liver levels and thankfully they were trending down quickly, so Dr. Ho was happy with keeping this week's appointment as planned.  So what we learned was, for the foreseeable future alcohol will just have to be reserved for a celebratory or special occasional drink. 

Yesterday's trip went smoothly and without issues. He had to leave at zero-dark-thirty to make his early blood draw time, but said the roads were good and made it with only one stop. (Slight jab at his wife's small bladder - usually needing 2 stops minimum-ha!) After blood work, he met with Dr. Ho and reviewed the results. Liver numbers back in normal ranges, but thyroid function is now flipped from hyper function to hypo function - meaning it isn't doing it's job and the additional thyroid tests confirmed and show a big drop in thyroxine. Again, this was all somewhat expected and not out of the normal reaction while on this treatment. Dr. Ho will start Chris on a low dose medication and see how his numbers look in another 3 weeks and will adjust again from there as needed. The positive news to this is that there really hasn't been much else for other side effects that have been causing issues. (Praise!) Hopefully this remains the case as he moves forward with treatments.  Following his appointment with Dr. Ho he had a decent break in the day to fill and after hitting his favorite spot-Dunkin Donuts,  took advantage of the weather and walked some miles on the trails, ran some errands, went to Mass and then took up waiting his turn to be called back for infusion.  Chris said the infusion center was just busy in general so they were a little backed up on the timeline, otherwise his infusion went smoothly and without issue. 

His next treatment is in 3 weeks and will be lined up with his 3 month follow up scans. These will include follow up with Dr. Karim as well. So the scans, appointments and treatment will end up spanning 2 days. I'll travel with him this next trip and get to accompany him to the appointments. We plan to head up on the evening of June 2nd with appointments on Monday and Tuesday June 3rd and 4th. 

I'll give you and update following these next appointments! 

We appreciate your continued prayers for good scans and news for these upcoming appointments, and that treatment continues to go well. 

Thank you!