Posts

Showing posts from January, 2020

Treatment Update

I know it’s been a minute since I posted an update but if I am honest...I would just a soon pretend everything is normal and not attract attention.    But in reality life is normal except we go to Chicago twice a week to hopefully save his lungs from shutting down. The most common question we get is “Is it working?” The answer is simply we don’t know. We don’t know because it’s a 6 month treatment regimen and because a full PFT (done at the hospital) will be the deciding factor.  Brent’s been feeling good and he is still able to go to work- which we are SO grateful for!  Many have asked what exactly does the treatment do to his body. They place an IV in that has a double line (one to take blood & one to give it back). The line is attached to a special machine that separates his white and red blood cells. Then they add medicine to the white blood cells which makes them UV activated. The white blood cells then get ran through a UV light that modifies their...
Good evening! First thing this morning we went to Chicago to meet with the Dr who will be over seeing Brent’s photopheresis treatments. We had all of our questions answered and are hopeful that the treatments will work.  His first treatment will be Thursday morning of this week and we will have to go again on Friday. The treatments have to be done in Chicago and-we were glad to hear-the treatment will only be 2 hrs long!! The one side effects he has is that he can’t be exposed to the sun the first 24 hrs after treatment. This is because they use UV light in the treatment and it takes 24 hrs for his body to absorb any excess of the UV sensitive drug that may be in his body.    Other than that he should feel the same as usual!  He was also scheduled to get a port (under the skin) placed today. After checking his arms they concluded that they didn’t need the port because he has great veins!  We appreciate all the love, support & prayers everyone ha...