95. Getting Ready for the Trial - June 16, 2026

Yesterday, Owen had an appointment with the VA at 1100. And we walked out of that building at 1215, grabbed food quickly, and jumped into the truck to start our trek to Houston for his 1730 appointment for a two-hour MRI at MD Anderson.

We got into Houston at about 1600, enough time to drop our bags and head out for the appointment.

Almost didn’t make it because I failed to realize that the MRI was scheduled at a building on the campus.. just not at the building we were familiar with.

So Owen and I were working up a good sweat trying to get from 1515 Holcomb Drive to 1700 Holcomb Drive. It’s at this time that we learned how big MD Anderson really is and that they had patient shuttle busses to help patients transfer between a few of their massive buildings.

We barely made it. And we were out of there close to 2000.

We walked back to our hotel, were too tired to get food so we Uber’d it. I had ordered from a highly rated Persian restaurant and didn’t realize that Iran was playing New Zealand right then. So we sat in the lobby, ate our food and watched some World Cup soccer. Great game.

It is Tuesday at 0930. Owen is one hour into his nap. He had two appointments this morning starting at 0630. While I have somewhat become accustomed to 5 hour sleep, it was a bit rough for Owen.

He has his meeting with his Neuro-oncologist at 1230.

The last 24 hours have been appointments for Owen’s initial screening for the trial.

We have to come back next week to start the trial which involves infusion. And I am hoping the side effects are minimal. He has been on temozolomide for the last two years. He is about to get a new chemo drug and I don’t see anything about meds for nausea.

Owen’s visits to Houston will involve tons of blood draws and a pee test, a pretty intensive MRI, the infusion of one of the drugs used for the trial, and a meeting with the doctor and his team. Once a month. Until he falls out of the qualifying factors in this study. I hope he handles these meds well.

More to come.