Off to Houston/Austin TX!

So I took the Tri-Rail to the airport and things are startiing to get a little easier for me. The AFO braces, while painful to wear, allow me to walk fairly well now and provide decent stabiliy when I’m standing. Even better, my hands are slowly starting to become useful again! I can pull things out of my pockets (like my wallet, etc.) and can insert and remove my credit card from the check-in kiosk at the airport, hells yeah! I don’t want to get too cocky but I think the worst of the GBS is over and the last 2 or 3 months will hopefully be just a bad memory.

I also found out that my insurance approved another infusion of IVIG so I figure after that I should be a new man! I’m really hoping I can dust off the golf clubs and possibly jump on my bike again. Or, maybe I should just chill and not get too over zealous! I don’t want to jinx myself -- it’s just that I feel like I want to jump out of my skin sometimes and do normal things that I used to be able to do…

Now if I can only hold on and wait for my next treatment until 10 days after the IVIG… My neurologist e-mailed and told me that I should try and wait 10 days after the infusions before I start new therapy. Most chemo’s tend to damage the nerves and we’d just be defeating the purpose of IVIG if I jump into treatment before the second round has a chance to work. This is somewhat complicated as the therapy I’m seeking out isn’t conventional chemo but drugs that work with your body to “starve” the cancer cells or cause your genes to “turn off” the signals that the cancer cells need to proliferate. These classes of drugs are called HDAC inhibitors or mTOR inhibitors. There are others that I’m sure I’ll find out about on Friday as well. I just need to figure out if any of these will cause damage to my nerves like the last drug I was on. Nice thing is my local oncologist and neurologist (in Detroit) are husband and wife! I can get them in the same room and let them determine if what I choose to control the cancer is going to be counterproductive to me healing from GBS. That should be an interesting conversation :)

By the way, speaking of interesting, I read an article written by Linda Johnson from the Associated Press today regarding a law that is part of the new Healthcare Legislation. The new law requires doctors to disclose any payments they receive from the drug companies to promote a certain drug (or clinical trial) in any way. Unfortunately the law doesn't kick in until 2013 but Phizer and some others have volunteered to disclose the inrformation immediately (smart P.R.). Here's the link if interested:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PFIZER_DOCTOR_PAYMENTS_NYOL-?SITE=NYMID&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Another major benefit for me and countless others who depend on the efficacy of drugs rather than how well they're marketed... How did this go on for so long?

So I land in an hour or so and plan to take it easy tonight in Houston. I’ll be at M.D. Anderson all day tomorrow and then it’s off to Austin! The weather is supposed to be beautiful and I’m looking forward to checking out some nice live music, consuming some of the tasty local grub, and just taking in the great Austin vibe.

Good times!