Hey Everybody! Brooke here for the big East Coast Update. I’m going to try to not drone on too much, but we got some shocking news while on our East Coast Tour that we’re excited to share.

Today is chemo #49 for Ryan and we got excellent news that his tumor marker (CA19-9) continues to go down from it’s post-covid peak to 148 today! This is the second lowest it’s been in the last few months, so we are grateful for the chemo to continue working so well!

We left last Thursday night and flew into Washington DC. We saw Dr. Michael Pishvaian at Johns Hopkins/Sibley Kimmel on Friday and were able to learn some good little nuggets of information from him. Overall, Johns Hopkins doesn’t have a lot of clinical trials for Ryan at this time, but the information we learned about other treatments was very good. The doctor said to reach out to him should anything change in his current treatment plan and we can see if they have anything new to provide at that time.

On Saturday we met up with two families in the DC area that have also been affected by Pancreatic Cancer. The daughter of one of the survivors invited us all to their home in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, and that was such a great meeting. It was nice to be with other families who have learned so much and are also doing all they can for their loved ones! We had a lot in common with each family and hope to see them when we go back to the area in the future. We were also able to see some cherry blossom trees in the area, and they are just as magnificent as everyone says they are!

On Monday, we were up very early to board the Amtrak train for NYC. After we arrived there, we were able to take our luggage to be held at the hotel so we didn’t have to lug it all over the city. Then we headed to Memorial Sloan Kettering to speak with Dr. Eileen O’Reilly. We had an excellent visit with her, learning of a few other chemotherapy options Ryan still has available along with a few trials that he might qualify for that they will have at the end of the year. We had a great shock when the doctor then shifted to speaking about the Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) trial we tried to get into earlier this year. She said because she can see physically how well Ryan looks and how well he is doing, that she would like to take his case back to the research team and advocate for him to be part of the trial!!!!!!!! She said it’s not guaranteed that she can get him in, but she’s going to try. This is amazing news, and we ask you all to pray for this to happen if it’s meant to be. This is the trial where we would probably have to move to New York for 4-5 months while the initial piece of the trial is done, but we will figure it out if/when we need to do so. She congratulated Ryan on doing so well and said she hoped to be able to let us know in 2-3 weeks what the final decision is.

On Monday night we were able to have dinner with friends (John and Rosemary) and meet their little girl. It was nice to sit and relax with friends for a bit before heading back to the hotel.

On Tuesday morning we were up early again to catch the train to Philadelphia. Here, we saw Dr. Kim Reiss Binder at Penn Medicine. She too provided us with a wealth of information and possible trials they may have later this year. While here, we were able to wander the Penn Campus a bit, and boy is it beautiful this time of year! We will attach a few photos when we make this post.

After the visit in Philly, we once again boarded the Amtrak train to head back to DC. We were quite exhausted by the time we got back to DC, so mainly just hung out at our hotel until it was time to head home on Wednesday. We jumped back into reality on Thursday as Asher had baseball practice, Ryan has chemo today (Friday) and then Asher has football on Sunday.

As Ryan has posted about before, we are raising money for PanCan’s annual Purple Stride Walk on April 27 at Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines. The opening ceremony starts at 9 AM with the walk starting at 9:30 AM. Ryan has been invited to give the Survivor Speech during the ceremony and he is quite excited, and honored, to do this as a three-year survivor!!

We would love if you are able to come walk with us, or donate to our team, Rally 4 Ryan. You do not need to donate to walk with us. The link to donate if you choose to do so is: https://tinyurl.com/3c3p79hd

Have a great weekend with what should be wonderful weather here in Iowa. As always, thank you all so much for your prayers and support!!!!