Well, things are moving right along and I’m definitely getting the feeling that this is really happening.
Last Friday we received a letter from the Manitoba Government indicating they would fund the CAR-T therapy in Ontario as the three Manitoba based approvals had been confirmed.
Today we received notification that I’ve been approved by the University Health Network (UHN) for an in-person consultation in Toronto. They should be contacting me in the next 2-3 days to set up the appointments.
From what we know today the schedule is likely to be as follows:
The initial trip to UNH for the consult over 4-5 days. This is a final confirmation that I’m a good candidate for the CAR-T therapy. If the consult is positive, my T-cells will be collected for processing by the lab at that time.
Lab processing is estimated to take 3-4 weeks. During this time we will return home and yes we’ll need to do the 14 day quarantine thing. 🙁
Once the cells have been processed we will travel back to Toronto for 4-5 weeks where I’ll be admitted for the therapy (5-6 days) and then monitored for recovery (the rest of the time).
So, all up it’s looking like 10 weeks. I should be good to go for lake season.
Of course there are some COVID considerations to deal with regarding all the inter-provincial travel and we will have a Manitoba Patient Representative that will be working with us to sort through all the details.
Thanks for all the love, support, encouragement, and prayers for the both of us in this new part of the journey.