Tag: CAR T

Autumn Moon

by Tom Dunn
Vine branch in autumn. Photo credit: Pixabay.com


Hello, friends. I’m taking this opportunity to reconnect with you after a long bout of writers block. I hope that things in your life are moving ahead well for the most part. This post covers a few items that have been on my mind. I hope you don’t get mental whiplash reading it. 

When I last wrote in April, I was finishing another round of CAR T-Cell treatment in Los Angeles. That has turned out great and my scans look clear. This type of treatment is likely to become the standard of care for the type of lymphoma I had, as well as other cancers where CAR T-cell research is underway, like leukemia and myeloma. This gives me hope that more people will suffer less and live longer thanks to the work being done at UCLA and at hospitals and universities across the country.

My favorite season, autumn, arrived with little fanfare as temperatures remained in the nineties for much of October. November cooled off nicely, perhaps a bit too nicely. The sunshine slanting low in the sky paints the autumn colors with golden light which makes me feel the world is a benevolent place. That feeling comes from yearly anticipation of the holidays I love so well.  

Roslyn and I caught RSV in November and both landed in the hospital for a few days. It was scary and uncomfortable, but we are definitely on the mend now. It will take some weeks before we are fully recovered. I suggest you pay attention if you get cold-like symptoms that don’t go away quickly and aren’t from COVID-19. RSV is spreading this season, so don’t let it sneak up on you or your loved ones. You can read more about RSV at https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html.

Thanksgiving is a favorite time we set aside to contemplate our blessings and the generosity of others, particularly our family and friends. Lord knows I’ve got much to be thankful for! Gratefulness is a core component of happiness, and we should practice and celebrate it whenever possible. Our Thanksgiving meal was outdoors at home this year. The weather was very cooperative. Our family members brought lots of love and good food to share. 

I’ve been watching the Artemis I mission with guarded optimism. Why did it take so long for humans to start going back to the moon? I was in elementary school when the US first landed people on the moon. There was so much excitement and national pride. Now I hear people wonder why we should bother. They say that there are more important things on Earth to spend our resources on. I respectfully disagree. Pure science and exploration is in our blood. It is the raw material that drives advancement in the sciences, in technology, and in social consciousness. 

To that end, I offer the following short poem.

May you and your loved ones be well and happy now and throughout the holiday season. God Bless You All. 

Tom

On Nov. 20, the fifth day of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission, a camera mounted on the tip of one of Orion’s solar array wings captured this footage of the spacecraft and the Moon as it continued to grow nearer to our lunar neighbor. Photo and caption credit: https://images.NASA.gov.

Journey to the Sun

by Thomas A. Dunn

Some are puzzled anyone
Would want to fly up to the sun
Or travel to the moon and Mars
To look back at this world of ours. 

What do they hope to see up there?
Find Ursa Major’s baby bear?
If past the asteroids they flew 
To see a comet’s tail or two?

What riches wait intrepid folk
On rockets flame and soot and smoke?
They ride at speeds that spin their heads
They’re lucky they don’t wind up dead!

When out on Jupiter they find 
No food to eat, no jewels to mine
There’s nothing there but frozen gas
They might as well just fly on past. 

And float celestially abroad
Are we mere dust? No, not to God.

God made the heavens overhead
So we, from humankind’s first bed
Look up, reach up, and learn to fly
With comet angels ‘cross the skies. 

We heed our greatest journey’s call
To find some meaning in it all
So we fly out, not stand and wait
As others snipe or ruminate. 

The dying Sun won’t care if we
All disappear eternally
We must strike out to find new homes
Lest time the human race consumes. 

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.