Goosebumps

Stanford was the last stop on our “tour” of medical institutions in March and April of this year. Almost uniformly, to that point, the reception from the hospitals was similar and terminator-like. We were interviewed by the lead research doc, complete with attending residents, a nurse or two, etc. Each explained the risks of the disease, the need for treatment either yesterday, tomorrow, or, if they were mellow, maybe in a month or so. With the exception of Dr. Windham Wilson at NIH, the message was a variation on the theme: “come with me if you want to live.”

Our final stop, at the insistence of our daughter, Molly, was The Farm, to check out their nascent vaccine program for MCL. We met with the aforementioned, bright and engaging Dr. Josh Brody who gave us his detailed description of their vaccine and its previous successes. After answering our questions, he introduced us to Dr. Wan Kai Weng, who would oversee the stem cell transplant part of the process. Wan Kai is a spare young man, usually dressed in khaki pants and short sleeved, button-down oxfords. He began his medical training in immunology, became interested in the treatment of cancer, and moved to the BMT department of Stanford. He is exceedingly bright, soft spoken, and has a priceless bedside manner. (When I made the off-handed comment that my several bone marrow biopsies were non-events, he put his hand on my shoulder and said with an earnest twinkle: “then we are just the hospital for you”)
Wan Kai spent two hours with us that day. He described in detail the operation of the Lymphatic system. How it worked and what went wrong when it broke down and Lymphoma developed. He made the whole description interesting, never condescending, and available to the guy who never took high school biology.
Wan Kai sealed the deal for us. Couldn’t imagine going through this elsewhere.

Flash forward to 2:00 PM, Friday, Nov. 20. We are sitting in Dr. Weng's examining room. I have completed the vaccine portion of this trip, having spent 8 hours on the Apheresis machine one floor above. (You might recall from your Greek that the word Apheresis means “total body enema.”) They have collected sufficient white cells to make the next, more muscular, version of my vaccine.

This is the hand-off from Dr. Brody in "Vaccine" to Dr Weng in "BMT." Wan Kai examines me. Looks at my many test results. Asks how I feel. He describes, again, the coming events. As we finish, he looks over his glasses at me and says, with quiet conviction: “You know, you are about to make history.”
11/23/09