Clayton is HAMA positive. It was not news we were expecting even though we knew it was possible. Kind of like finding out he had cancer in the first place. It's a slap in the face. Explaining HAMA (human anti-mouse antibodies) could be lengthy, so I'll try and make it brief. HAMA is when the body develops its own antibodies that then block the 3f8 (mouse) antibodies preventing them from targeting the neuroblastoma cells. Therefore, HAMA positive means we cannot go forward with our next 3f8 treatment the week of September 10th. Instead we will draw his blood again on September 6th and overnight it to them. Then they will call us on the 11th with the results. If he is HAMA negative, then we will do treatment the week of the 17th. If he is HAMA positive, then we will talk with the doctors about our next move. They do have a treatment that can bring a HAMA down if it is really high. We think since they just want to retest Clayton, that his is probably borderline.
It is not the end of the world. He might test negative in a couple weeks and be able to continue with treatments. The important thing, is that the HAMA can recede; so maybe it will and maybe it won't, time will tell. The difficult part is that for stage IV high risk neuroblastoma, chemo alone is not enough. It calls for chemo, radiation and something else. We chose to forgo a stem cell transplant and do this antibody treatment instead as our "something else". Only starting this treatment got delayed and now after just one round he is HAMA positive. It feels like we put all of our eggs in one basket and now we are just watching them fall out one by one. It's scary.
Otherwise, Clayton is doing much better right now. He did miss two days of school this week because of Hurricane Isaac which was a bummer. In the end, Isaac drifted far enough to the west that we just saw some severe thunderstorms and not hurricane conditions. So we lucked out on that one.
I on the other have been better. I have found myself in a funk that seems to be the product of the nasty weather, this unexpected bump with Clayton's treatment and the disgusting political climate floating around my hometown. I am sick to death of the politics and my stress level is already high enough right now that the ridiculousness of it all is driving me crazy. I had been so excited at the thought that it was suppose to be over on August 28th, but then Isaac came along.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"
- Edmond Burke
It doesn't matter if your talking about cancer or politics, without the actions and support of good men and women, there cannot be progress.
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