Friends and Family,
The new phase of the journey begins!
I have now started my pre-trial phase. No, NOT the criminal kind. It's the kind where they plug me into every medical machine ever invented, and then withdraw enough bodily fluids to turn me from a grape into a raisin. When they are done, they will pronounce me ready to be properly drugged.
Because the tests started so early in the day, I flew down from Portland yesterday morning. I came by myself, because Genevieve is still suffering away in Hawaii. With a whole day of nothing (medical) to do, would you expect me to go to Genevieve's dad's empty house and do nothing all day? Ha! Now what kind of "Carpe Diem" guy would I be if I did that?
I had a nice long beautiful walk on the sunny Del Mar beach. Gorgeous! I couldn't stop smiling for two hours! Was it the beach?
I will admit that I also spent half a day with my iPad working from outside the Del Mar Starbucks with just occasional glimpses of the ocean, but still, Carpe Oceana! (I don't think Oceana is latin for Ocean, but work with me.)
I'm now finishing a 7:30 AM-7:30 PM EKG marathon. It's five minutes of getting plugged in, scanned and unplugged, followed by an hour of down time. Later in the day the EKG's moved to every two hours, so I had plenty of time to roam the hospital. With all that free time on my hands, I've been trying hard not to end up in the OTHER kind of "pre-trial."
Tomorrow I have one last 7:30 AM EKG, then get a 90-minute eye exam. (What can they be doing for 90 minutes???) At the end of the day I get an echocardiogram, followed by a CT scan. After that, the imaging paparazzi are done with me. I will remain anonymous, but by the time they have all those images, my organs should be famous in certain circles.
When the medical team are done having their way with me, I will head straight to the airport and back to Portland. I am very grateful that the MOU team did such a great job of squeezing all those tests into the fewest possible days, especially with such short notice. I can still work from my iPad, but it's much easier when I'm back in my office, so making these trips as short as possible makes everything go easier.
After all of your thoughts and prayers for me to be T790 positive, here is one more number for you: 440. That is the total number of people IN THE WORLD that are part of this clinical trial. Great Britain, Japan - the trial is spread out around the globe. And out of 7 billion people, I am one of the extremely fortunate 440.
Del Mar Beach or not, this is true: My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!
The next step will be to come back next Tuesday... to start the new drug! Counting the days! 7 is the next great number!
Love,
Dann