Tag: cancer treatment

Springtime in the Garden

by Tom Dunn

Dear friends, greetings from Tiverton House. The weather here has been mild the past couple of weeks since I received my T cell infusion. We’ve been able to get out on walks around the university campus and Westwood Village, wearing our face masks and avoiding close contact with people. This morning the weather was cool, and drizzle was threatening. We walked north across the campus to the sculpture garden where the trees were in full purple bloom, with blossoms strewn over the green grass as the sun peeked out. The scent of the trees filled the air, so strongly that we could smell them through our masks.

UCLA Scupture Garden in springtime

Years ago, I received a young jacaranda tree as a gift, and we planted it in our front yard. I love this tree. We can trim it severely each year, but it grows with exuberance each spring, blanketing our yard with purple and fragrance.

As you may know, Roslyn and I are residing here for the duration of the study’s mandatory 28 days of monitoring for side effects. My luck has been holding, and I’ve had very few side effects. I may be losing some hair, probably from the chemo, but mostly I’ve been blessed with lack of symptoms. I didn’t suffer from the CRS that I did last time around, so I didn’t have to return to the hospital. CRS occurs when cancer cells are killed in large numbers, so we worried that lack of CRS would indicate that the T cells didn’t work this time. My doctor assured me that some patients avoided CRS and still had complete remission of their lymphoma. We will find out or sure when I have my next PET/CT scan.

It’s difficult to be patient here. The hotel is nice, but it’s not home. COVID restrictions are still in place here, especially due to the guests and their various medical vulnerabilities. We miss our family and friends and long to get back to normal life. Our faithful friends often reach out to ask how we are, which is kind of them. I maintain an attitude of gratitude, which is not only appropriate but easy to do given the many blessings that I have received.

I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon. God Bless you all.

Tax Day 2022 Report

by Tom Dunn

Greetings from the hospital. I’m feeling well after receiving my T cells last week. I’ve been hanging out in the hospital waiting for side effects. So far, there haven’t been any.

Since I got here last week I met a lot of the same staff members that helped me 20 months ago. They’re all very kind, skilled, and hard-working. It was nice that many of them remember me, as well. That means a lot.

I’m still expecting to come down with cytokine release syndrome in a day or two, which will be caused by the T cells beginning to kill cancer cells in droves. It may not happen that way this time because my cancer load is less than it was the last time I went through this treatment. I expect to leave the hospital this week to stay nearby to be monitored for a while.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, support, love and kindness shown toward me and my family.

Restart

by Tom Dunn

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Mark Twain

There’s a lot of crazy in the world right now. Continuing pandemic. Ridiculous conspiracy theories. Pointless war. Threats to democracies everywhere, including our own. Avarice and demagoguery. Hypocrisy and ignorance.

Also, though, I see that there is also a lot of love in the world right now. People serving one another, holding each other up. People marrying or having kids. Families growing. People trying to listen better, to understand the world better, and to give voice to our desires for justice and freedom. Churches and other organizations focused on the needs of our community. Decent people doing the right thing most of the time.

Amid this turmoil, I’m starting to write again. Not surprisingly, things have changed with my illness. But before I get into that, let me just say that the last 18 months without having any signs of lymphoma have been a true gift from God. Sure, we had COVID in our lives, and not every day was perfect. However, to be able to live life without worrying about this illness has been something very precious to me and my family. We’ve spent many wonderful days together experiencing beautiful days and rainy days. I’ve enjoyed my friends, my church, and my community.

I had a PET/CT scan in early March that indicated activity in one of my inguinal lymph nodes. I had a biopsy that found Lymphoma cells there. The comprehensive results came in a bit later, showing that several of my lymph nodes are involved. It’s a good thing we caught it early. It hasn’t spread far. As part of the clinical trial protocol, I was getting PET/CT scans every three months. The next scan would have been scheduled for six months out. God knows how far disease might have spread in those six months.

As soon as the results were confirmed, my medical team at UCLA jumped right in planning for the next steps. There is a batch of my own T cells left over from 18 months ago, re-engineered to kill lymphoma. I only received a third of them last time around, and the rest were reserved. These leftovers were frozen and saved. The T cells were recently tested and appear to be viable. That means that if UCLA doctors follow the clinical trial rules (with some minor variations to be approved by the FDA) they can infuse me with these T cells. They’ll be giving me all the T cells left over from last time, about twice as many as before, twelve million of them. That coupled with the fact that I don’t have as many cancer cells in my body yet, this treatment could be more successful than the last one. We will see.

So that’s the nuts and bolts of it. Of course, life is made of more than nuts and bolts. What happens to me affects everyone around me. Fortunately, I have my wonderful wife Roslyn, great friends and a loving family that are ever supportive. I am, truly, the luckiest man on the planet. These people step up to help and keep right on helping.

More information is forthcoming. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. Please reach out if you have questions.

Be well and be happy. God bless you all.

Spring is sprung

by Tom Dunn

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz,

I wonder where the flowers is…

Anon

It’s been a while since I’ve shared with you in this space. Hopefully you haven’t been too concerned about my welfare after the last post of several months ago. So I’ll start by saying that things are going very well. 

My cancer is gone again. 

The treatment worked wonders. There were a rough few days in the couple of weeks after the treatment. I went through a “cytokine storm” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm) as my body killed and eliminated cancer cells.  Since then, I’ve been working to recover my strength after months of being in and out of the hospital. As of now, I’m feeling very well. I’m out walking and doing yard work, and my strength is gradually returning. 

I’m still part of the clinical trial, being monitored for side effects and continued remission. This month at a medical conference my doctors will unveil preliminary results of the trial. I can’t talk about the trial results until they’re announced. I can say that my result was an unqualified success. Thank God for that!

Even if the treatment effects don’t last forever (and hey, that’s the way of many things in this life) I always will be grateful to God, my family and friends, the UCLA and the Jonsson Cancer Center (https://cancer.ucla.edu/) for all they have done for me. I am truly the luckiest guy on the planet, and very much blessed.

Like many lucky Americans, Roslyn and I have been vaccinated against COVID-19. We are ready to get back out there and see the world and all the people we love. With my illness and with COVID-19, we’ve been sequestered far too long. 

Be well and be happy. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. May God bless you all. Talk to you again soon.