#2 ABVD

OK- I do not like beer! I tried to get the medical folks to change the cancer drugs to rum and coke. The only thing they could come up with was ABVD!

Yesterday was a good day. Tuesday night we traveled to Bridgeport to check in at the Dodson's fine hotel and spa. Jeff and Sarah (along with the boys) had supper with us. Nate is as cute as ever. Sam is a wild man. I love that kid. He has the energy of a multitude of nuclear reactors. It was such a joy to see Jeff helping Sam play golf on a real golf green. Sam was honing his putting skills. I think his real joy was moving the flags located on the putting green.

We were off yesterday morning to the MBRCC (OK - Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center) The reason I did not write it out is that it always brings to mind the time at a Glenville State College graduation when the late Senator Jennings Randolph, husband of Mary Babb, was the main speaker. He was elderly at the time and started his speech by exclaiming, "How good it is to have the priviledge of speaking before the graduating class here at Salem College! " We all looked at him with a chuckle in our hearts. At least we knew where we were.

The cancer center was as efficient as in the past. You know the routine. Check in - get a buzzer. Within minutes the buzzer rings. I go to the lab for weight and height measurement. (Let me ask you - am I going to change my height every two weeks? Now the weight may be another story.) Time for the friendly needle in the arm so the IV will be happy. Off to the infusion center on the next floor.

We had a great surprise! Ed and MichelleToman stopped by during my infusion. Ed has been fighting non-Hodgkins lymphoma for several months with some very strong chemotherapy. What an inspiration that family has been! Michelle has been logging in on CarePages to update Ed's progress from the starting of his adventure until today. Michelle is an inspiring and wonderful writer! (I shed tears often when reading her update for it is so open and caring.) I noticed that Ed was not his bubbly self. He was dreading meeting with the doctor, and unhappy about being in the infusion center once again. Ed has battled extreme nausea during his treatments. During the infusion of adriamycin, the patient is given 2 popsicles to eat. This helps to constrict the capillaries of the mouth and provides less adriamycin from being absorbed in that area. Hopefully, the coldness reduces the possibility of sores developing in the mouth. I realized after we talked that my jokes about offering him a popcycle may not have been appropriate. Ed says he can not even look at a popsicle without feeling a little nauseous. We certainly appreciate the Toman family.

By the way, MARVELOUS NEWS, Ed discovered that his report showed NO TUMORS!! REMISSION is here and he has emerged victorious from this battle. I need to mention another member of Ed and Michelle's family. (They have three great kids.) Ed and Michelle's son, Jordan, is a fine young man. He is helping us with lawn care this summer. Durn, where has he been all the previous summers? Jordan is going to WVU in the fall. He will be missed. Thanks to Jordan for all his fine labors at the Meads' gardens. Jordan, the lawn care specialist, is such a joy.

Being the biologist I am, I move to learn the specifics of the world around me. This is the case with the drugs I am being intimate with these days. Another name for Adriamycin is doxorubicin. The history of doxorubicin can be traced back to the 1950s, when an Italian research company, Farmitalia Research Laboratories, began an organized effort to find anti-cancer compounds from soil-based microbes. A soil sample was isolated from the area surrounding the Castel del Monte, a 13th century castle. A new strain of Streptomyces peucetius which produced a red pigment was isolated, and an antibiotic was produced from this bacterium that was found to have good activity against murine tumors. Since a group of French researchers discovered the same compound at about the same time, the two teams named the compound daunorubicin, combining the name Dauni, a pre-Roman tribe that occupied the area of Italy where the compound was isolated, with the French word for ruby, rubis, describing the color. Clinical trials began in the 1960s, and the drug saw success in treating acute leukemia and lymphoma. However, by 1967, it was recognized that daunorubicin could produce fatal cardiac toxicity. Thus, it must be monitored carefully.

I have had no side effects thus far from the ABVD. I feel great! I have been taking 1/4 teaspoon of pureed ginger root a few days before treatment and afterward. Medical reasearch people have found that a moderate number of people taking ginger have lessened the nausea effects. Sarah has convinced me to devour Activia (yogurt with the bacteria that the GI tract loves). Thus far, no constipation. (I know you all really wanted to know that!)

Judy and I had our dinner at the Red Lobster in Morgantown. Shrimp and lobster - yummy!! Not certain we can keep up this lobster fare. We may have to eat at Chew Cheap next time. (Wow- Eat'n Park - now the Meads new franchise Chew Cheap. Look for our first restaurants in Glenville and Myrtle Beach, SC).

Thanks to you all for the cards and calls. We do have such special family and friends.