Hello Team Felders,

Chris is home! By all accounts, Chris sailed through his 9 day ramp-up dosing schedule. He got his first small dose of talquetamab on Day 1, a second medium dose on Day 4 and a full-size dose on Day 7. The rest of the time was spent assessing for adverse reactions every four hours for 48 hours after each dose. They take vitals and do a neurological test where they ask basic questions and have you write a sentence. Chris got very good at the test and didn’t wait for the questions before running through all the answers.

There were labs drawn every morning to check kidney & liver function as well as blood counts, etc. They were wonky every day in different ways but all the abnormal levels tended to resolve over time; not too surprising. His pulse was very low at times (in the 40’s) and they had to run down a few cardiac concerns, but all was well. In any event, Chris will get the full-size dose weekly from now on as an outpatient.

While confined to the ward, Chris logged lots of miles on the treadmill and hosted his brother Eric for a quick visit. The food was pretty good and there was lots of interesting variety; Chris appreciated the choices and the effort. Until about Day 8. Now most of the food tastes blah and he isn’t too interested in it. Sweet food tastes bland especially. Score one for me, I got a pretty excellent brownie out of the deal. But this is a side effect of the new medicine so it will be something to manage and deal with moving forward.

Not many fun stories to tell but there are always a few:

• Before they give each dose of talquetamab, they try to minimize a reaction by giving a combination of antihistamines (Benadryl), steroids, Tylenol, and more about an hour beforehand.  It can make a patient a bit loopy; the nurses call it Benedrunk. On the first day, Chris was given his pre-meds and then after a while he moseyed on down to the nurses’ station and said, “Hey, when am I supposed to get my shot? Did you forget about me?” The nurses started laughing because they had already given him his dose! (story told with Chris’s permission- ha ha!)

• As a visitor, I have to stand in line to get a wristband every day. On the first day, the woman asked who I’m visiting so she can look it up on her computer. I said the name and she started spelling it out, “P-H-E-L-L…” Really??? We never even made it to the tricky two N’s at the end and we were both dying laughing.

• The visitor’s chair in Chris’s room looked like a normal chair, but every time I sat on it, it sounded like a whoopie cushion! That never got old 

• Speaking of air leaks, on my way up to UMMC one day, I stopped at our house (AKA the construction zone) to retrieve something so vital to Chris’s stay that I can’t even remember what it was. Anyway, out on the local highway my low tire pressure indicator came on right in front of the Goodyear tire store. I could see a screw sticking out of my right front tire (darn those house construction guys!). I went inside Goodyear and the place was busy. I told the guy my issue and he said I will have to leave the car there and he may not even get to it today (even though we both agreed a patch was all that was needed). I said, “Okay, it’s just that I’m on my way to the hospital…” All of a sudden, this guy bumped me up to the front of the line and I was out in less than half an hour with a patched tire. He never asked me any questions, so I don’t know if he thought I was a doctor, nurse, or patient but I’m pretty sure he did not think I was a visitor!

That’s about all there is to say about this hospital stay.  Thank you so much for your kind messages of encouragement. It really makes a difference!

Quick Braggy Update on Kids

• Lucy is a junior at University of Maryland, due to graduate next year. She is doing great in school with a double major (Government & Politics, Human Development) and a minor in Philosophy. She has a boyfriend who treats her very well and a pet hedgehog who both vie for her attention. She is quite involved with college Mock Trial, traveling to competitions and captaining a team. She is at a competition right now, but I probably won’t hear how it went until I hunt her down. Tomorrow morning, she starts her gig as a Legislative Intern for Maryland Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger on Capitol Hill – her dream job! But the big news is, a few months ago – she got bangs!

• Spencer is having quite the senior year in high school! He spent the summer getting college applications ready and all the effort paid off. He was accepted to the three schools he laser-targeted, all with offers of merit scholarships. He is weighing his options but is leaning toward University of Maryland as a Computer Science major. This fall, he was thrilled to be named Homecoming King and even more thrilled to be cast in the school’s Rock n Roll Revival show, a 35-year tradition. He is performing in the matinee show as I type this and is having the time of his life. Who knew the boy could sing and dance? Well, we did but we all forgot about it. And on the one day he had no rehearsal, his three-person high school coding team won 3rd place at Code Quest, an international coding competition sponsored by Lockheed Martin.