Dose 2 done, back to the waiting game

Last Thursday Dec. 10th was my 2nd infusion of Vedolizamab (my study medication).  Everyone has been asking me how it went.  As you can see from the picture that the actually infusion is a piece of cake.  All I do is sit there with an IV in my arm for about two hours, catch up on episodes of funny shows on Hulu, and sometimes doze off.  So I guess it's safe to say that it went very well and now I'm all up to date on the episodes of House and The Office.  Of course the big question is if I'm feeling any better or see an changes since the infusion.  It's only been three days so far so I think I need to give it more time.  I really feel the same as I did before the infusion.  My GI doc has said, and I think I've mentioned this before, in most cases it takes 2 or even 3 infusions of these types of medications which are called Biological Drugs for there to be a response.  So it may be even at the end of January that I may start to see a change.

Some of you know that I've actually been participating in this Drug trial for some time. It's true, since August.  The difference is that before I was in the double-blinded study, which means I could have been given a placebo instead of the actual medication.  The study's protocol indicated that if my inflammation had absolutely no change after 14 weeks of starting the study that I would be place into the "Open Label" group. That's where I'm knowingly give the live medication and no chance of getting placebo.  That is what happened and now I'm two does or 2 infusions into the "Open Label" study.

So the question then is: was I getting the live med or just placebo in the previous part of the study? If I could know that I was indeed getting the live med instead of placebo then I would know that this drug probably isn't working for me.  I would then move on to other treatments. (at this point that means surgery, Colectomy) Colectomy Explination Link.  But the study won't tell me what I was given during that first part.  It's against there study protocol.  So that's why I'm stuck in this waiting game to see if my colon will respond to this Vedolizamab medication.  I sure hope it does because I would really like to have my full healthy life back. My weight now is at 157 lbs. A little better, at least it hasn't dropped any.