Wednesday Feb 18, 2009 -- It’s Radiation Dress Rehearsal Day and Trial Randomization Day. Today I find out if I am in the control group "arm" or the experimental "arm" (also called the Martha Stewart arm – it is the drug that had problems in an earlier trial and Martha got a phone call to sell her ImClone stock before the news was released to the public).

But before all that starts, I’m in the waiting room writing down questions for Dr. Yom if we get a chance to talk. They are running half an hour late so I start reading over the trial document to see if it sparks any additional questions. I finish that and they still haven’t called me so I read over the list of tests that are required to be run before I start treatment: MRI – check, chest x-ray – check, blood work – check, echocardiogram – OOPS! I haven’t had an echocardiogram yet.

Kevin, my trial coordinator, arrives with a pre-treatment quality of life survey for me to fill out. I tell him I’ll work on it but did he know I haven’t had an echocardiogram yet and I think it’s required before I get randomized. I show him the list. He leaves to talk this over with Dr. Yom. I get called and escorted to my radiation machine. Dr. Yom is there and she isn’t happy. She confirms that the randomization won’t be done today and the start date of Feb. 24 is in jeopardy. That is really discouraging. She says she will call my Kaiser doctor, Dr. Liu, to request an emergency echocardiogram.

I get to meet my radiation crew and my x-ray machine. We do the mask bolt down thing and they run a few x-ray scans to make sure everything is lined up. Dr. Yom says everything looks great. I go upstairs to meet with my medical oncologist, Dr. Dubey. I get a brief exam which should be the last required step before randomization except for the missing echocardiogram. I leave and pick up a phone msg from Dr. Liu telling me that I have an echocardiogram appointment Monday morning at 8:30 in Walnut Creek. This might just be soon enough to keep my Tuesday start if I can get the results faxed or called into UCSF right after the test. Dr. Liu suggests in her msg that I try to move to an earlier time Thursday or Friday if someone cancels.