Thank you all for the well wishes and most importantly the prayers and positive thoughts!  

I want to update you all on what has been and is going to happen now.  The important news is that Jack will be starting treatment THIS Friday at Duke!  He''ll have blood work done at 8:30am, then he meets with his oncologist for an hour followed by his first dose of Vervoy  a.k.a. Ippy.  This treatment is much like chemo in that he'll get a dose which will take about 3 hours (however it is not chemo... it is a type of cancer drug that works by unleashing the body's own immune system to fight a tumor.)  After getting the infusion he goes home for 3 weeks, then back for another dose... for a total of 4 doses in 12 weeks.  When he'll get reevaluated to see if it is working to fight the tumors.

If it isn't working he may qualify for a clinical trial for a new drug PD-1

Jack has demonstrated his tenacity for this journey we've been put upon, by qualifying for social security disability and getting on medicaid in record time (that according to all who manage the system). 

Right now he feels great although he says he is starting to feel it in his lungs.  And he looks GREAT!

We are hoping to start blogging updates on his treatment and how everything is going so everyone can keep up if they want.  You will be able to sign up for RSS feeds which will tell you when a new post has been added.  In his own quirky sense of humor Jack named the blog "what's eating Jack"  - I guess it is somewhat accurate.

here is the web address  http://whatseatingjack.blogspot.com/  

for the less internet savvy - you can also bookmark the address and that will keep the address for you so you don't have to look it up every time ;0)  

Peace, Love and Hoping for a cure

Helen

For some reading pleasure

NY Times article on Vervoy getting approved by the FDA  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/business/26drug.html

PD-1 Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_cell_death_1

National Center for Biotechnology on PD-1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18173375

Another patient's blog on PD-1 http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/patient1/Patient-1-Is-PD-1-the-answer.html