[Greg H]

NIH Campath Trial Day 1 is nearly done, assuming nothing overly exciting happens between now and bedtime.

Here's the rundown:

ECHOcardiogram first -- an ultrasound of your heart (for those who haven't had one). Technician was Russian by way of Israel. This is a very international place!

Then EKG, plus outfitting with a Holter monitor for a 24 hour continuous EKG. You have to keep a little diary of activity with this, which was hard to remember to do, since we didn't really do much all day except walk around NIH.

Seven vials of Blood contributed to the phlebotomists.

Chest X-Ray.

Consent forms with the Principal Investigator, Dr. Matthew Olnes, who let us know that they have applied to have their trial extended from the current 43 to as many as 80 patients, which will let them gather more data to publish while continuing to make this therapy available, until the accumulation of data can convince insurance companies that this is a viable therapy worthy of reimbursement, so lots of MDSers can benefit.

Check in as inpatient.

Interview (medical history) with the rotating Fellow who will be my primary Doc during the trial.

Lunch.

Boredom.

So we walked around the facility, found the patient library, found the gym, could not find the wine bar, and eventually gave up and had dinner.

That's about the size of it; more fun tomorrow when we get a PICC line and a little dose of Campath.

Take care!

Greg