Birthday, Games and Such

Labor Day Kyla, Jed, Emma, Jill, Wade, Kelli and Isaac all went to the coast to have some fun before school started. The day was nice and I will put a few pictures up soon.

Friday was my 45th birthday and Dave made a great salmon, Kyla made a marinated pasta salad and fruit salad. The dinner and company were terrific with all the kids and boyfriends, etc. there to celebrate. Wade brought little "Missy", Barb and Rick's new puppy because Jill was house/dog sitting for Aunt Barb. Missy was so brave that she went out and barked at the baby chicks while hiding behind Kyla's legs. Thank you everyone for the nice gifts.

Fierce dog, Missy

Dave has been doing his Consumer Reports shopping for a new big screen TV for his 50th birthday. We are giving him plenty of time (like 2 months) as we all know how long it takes for him to shop and make up his mind. Another thing that keeps him busy is the installer for the wood floors. We have a second coat of finish down but are still waiting on the final....plus fixing some mistakes. So this is going on the 7th week of a 10 day job. Patience!!!!

Saturday Uncle Tony took Kyla to the Duck game and Brian and Wade went also. We all went to GG and Grandads for hamburgers afterward and got to visit with Tony, Gary and Patti, Mark, Eric and Molly. Karen sent down some pretty cool looking slippers for Kelli. They kind of look like Spike's brother....white dogs. Crazy!

There is some good news about Kyla's particular IL13 treatment that came out today. The press release was from NeoPharm, Inc. which is the drug company sponsoring the clinical trial. The information was presented at the European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO) Congress showing encouraging preliminary data from ongoing Phase I/II trial. Enrollment has now begun in the first global Phase I/II clinical trial of IL13-PE38; the third NeoPharm sponsored clinical study to date in patients with recurrent or progressive malignant gliomas. They are working to quickly advance this treatment to Phase II/III and get it out there on the market (read more here)

Another story that aired on Dateline NBC is about an immunotherapy trial that Dr. Laiu at UCLA is using. It is so exciting to see all the hard work and hope out there for the thousands of people going through the same thing Kyla is. Our hopes and prayers are that everyone will be able to benefit from this not just now but in the future.