Before We Leave...

Nico reached an important milestone this week. He took his last DMD (Disease Modifying Drug) last Tuesday evening. Almost 12years of self injections, monthly infusions and daily pills to keep MS from progressing, are finally over. He still has to take a lot of pills several times a day to manage his multitude of symptoms, but hopefully that will get better soon too.

He is doing really well at the moment and is all pumped up and ready to do this. We are flying to Chicago this Sunday and staying at the Aloft the first 7 days (thank you Jana and Chance for your generous gift of hotel points!). After that we are staying at the Residence Inn and are coming back around August 17.

Nico will have extensive tests in the first week of our stay, to make sure his body can take the treatment. If everything goes well, he will be admitted to the hospital for 24 hours on August the 4th for what is called the Mobilization Phase of the treatment. This involves 1 round of Cytoxan infusion (Chemo therapy drug) and 6 days of daily Neupogen injections. This will stimulate his bone marrow to produce lots of stem cells. In addition, he has to take antibiotic and antifungal pills to prevent any infections.

On August 14th a vascular catheter will be placed into a vein in his neck and the stem cells will be harvested by a process called Apheresis. Those cells will be deep frozen and stored for the 2nd part of his treatment later in September. If he produced enough stem cells, the catheter is removed, otherwise it stays until the next day for a 2nd harvest.
We will have a 3 weeks long break and can fly back home.

Here is Nico taking a ride with his nephew Patrick on his snazzy little scooter. This scooter is a lifesaver, it is very light, folds up and fits in the trunk of any car.