Clinical Trial Day One

[Guest guest]

I got into San Sunday evening and checked into the

Amerisuites hotel on IH 10 near Wurzbach. The hotel is off the

highway and where the street from the hotel intersects with the

access road we have a County Line Barbeque and a Sea Island seafood

place. What a sacrifice I have to make! Sunday night I had oysters

and shrimp with a Shiner Bock on the side. That's the last beer I

will have for months to come.

The nurses were waiting for me on Monday AM and put me through the

routine of vitals, etc. I have lost more weight. It seems to be

coming off faster these days. I guess that's the cancer still at

work. My CEA has risen to 540 from a low of 8. Anyway, after a long

delay while they tracked down Dr. Popadopoulos to get a signature on

a paper he forgot, the pharmacy finally released my dose of CX-3453

about 11:00. It was chartreuse and almost luminescent. It reminded

me of the color you get when you make a margarita with really green

lime juice and Cuervo Gold. Unfortunately it didn't have any flavor

at all.

The infusion when over an hour and we had no issues other than

having trouble with my IV for blood draws. They ended up starting an

IV in my right wrist. Uncomfortable, but no show stopper.

I had to stay in the infusion room, pee in a bottle whenever I had

to go, and drink lots of fluids – mostly water. I was trapped there

until 12:45 AM today. Yep, that long, and they kept taking blood

samples every hour or so. I got back to the hotel and crashed.

Today I have to go in and get a blood sample drawn, and then get

another infusion of the drug. After that, I'm free to go. I'll

probably come back to the hotel and work remotely, assuming there's

work to be done. I feel pretty good this morning – maybe a little

sleepy, but overall pretty good.