Thankfully, the Ontario government has approved the hospitals request for the nelarabine drug, however it came with a caveat. For some reason, the drug was only approved to be used for an outpatient protocol so yesterday I was discharged as an inpatient and became an outpatient. On the plus side, this means I can stay at home while I receive this chemo however it also means I’m not being monitored all the time and I won’t be able to ring for a nurse any time I like.

Today I met with Dr. Schuh (I figured out the correct spelling) to see what the deal is with this outpatient protocol. Apparently it is going to take longer than they thought before they can actually start treatment. In addition to the drug having to be shipped here, because PMH has never used the drug before they need to train a nurse to administer it. It sounded like there are a lot of beaurocratic hurdles that come with bringing a brand new drug into the hospital for a treatment protocol they’ve never done before. Hopefully by next week I can start chemo but we’ll have to wait and see. A doctor that works in the outpatient clinic will call on Monday so I will ask for more information then.

On the bone marrow transplant front, apparently they’ve found a couple of high quality matches in the general registry and have contacted them to see if they are available to donate. Hopefully one of them is still willing and able to lend some of their cells.

Still fighting,

Ethan Wissell