Round Two!!!!!!!!!

Going back to Pittsburgh for the second cycle of Chemo.(Monday July 31) Bob Bouvy and myself will be driving down about 5:30 am and arriving about 10:30 am.Schedule:Monday- Draw blood and dispense Patrin for daily dosage.Thuesday- start the daily PatrinWedesday- Get the dicarbazine (The Chemo Treatment)

Thank you Patty B!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Patty for the wonderful card. I posted the photo "Hanging in there" in the Photo Gallery. Say "Hello!!!!" to all the B's in Florida.
Take care Jimmy B

7-21-06 On the Road!!!!!

We got on the road at 6:10 am. I was quite grumpy due to the fact that I wanted to leave at 5:30 am and my ear was bothering me. Dee wanted to be on the road at 6:30 am. So, we had quite the spat and you guessed it. I lost the battle. She didn’t start talking to me until we were half way to Buffalo. I wanted get through Buffalo before the traffic started backing up for rush hour.
It was about 7:20 am when we pass through buffalo. Dee now told me that I owed her big time. I like a good trooper agreed. I remembered Steve Clark’s message:The Battle:A woman always has the last word in any argument.So, I will be cooking her favorite meal this weekend.Anyway, we made it through Buffalo just before it got congested. So I am driving about 75-80 mph and I notice a white suburban with Ontario license plate following me. He seemed to be tailgating. So, I pull into the slow lane and slow down to a mere 74 mph and he follows me. I then started to come up on a slow moving vehicle. I put my blinker on, and move to the passing lane. The white suburban follows me.Then I pass an 18 wheeler and he blew his horn to indicate that there is a trooper up ahead. So I pass him and return to slow lane and reduce my speed. Guess what, the white suburban follows me again. This is getting crazy. So we exit the thruway at the Peach street exit, exit 24, to get gas and to see if we could escape from the white suburban.
We return to the thruway and proceed to the next exit which was US 79 south to Pittsburgh. As I spead up to my cruising speed and lock in the cruise control, I notice the white suburban again. We played cat and mouse until we were ¾ of the way to Pittsburgh. Finally, we were approaching bridge abutment where there are troopers always hanging out. So, I began to slowdown and the white suburban was inches from my rear bumper. As we passed the bridge, there it was, a cop car. We were doing 75-80 mph in the fast lane. I quickly pulled into the slow lane and dropped my speed to 70. Guess what, the white suburban followed me. I looked in the rear view mirror and the cop was pulling out. Dee was half asleep in the passenger seat as I was preparing myself to get a ticket. As the cop drew near to white suburban, he turned on his lights and signaled the driver to pull over. I was so relieved as we drove off. I can only imagine that the white suburban got pulled over for tailgating. Those crazy Canadians.

We arrived at the Hillman Cancer center at about 10:30 am. We stopped in the library and resource center to say hello to Joyce Grater. Joyce was the one who got me in at the assisted living complex. I handed out my special chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. They have been so helpful and friendly there at the Hillman, I wanted to repay my gratitude somehow. We said our goodbyes and proceeded to the second floor to check in.We checked in, and hung a left at the elevator to get to the outpatient center. We were met by Beverley, the nurse who took care of me while I was in the hospital down there.As I pulled out my bags of cookies out of my knapsack, Melissa, Heather, and Jan showed up. I proceeded to hand them out to everyone. I got very big smiles and thank you. It made my day. I was now surrounded by five women including my wife. And, I was the only patient there. What a trip!!!!!!! They poked and prodded me. Jan removed my stitches. Beverley, drew my blood and Melissa checked my ear. Heather reviewed my previous blood work that was done in Rochester. All seemed to be going fine, except my ear infection. Melissa said “If it doesn’t get better by Monday, give me a call and I will write a prescription for you.” The whole visit took only 45 minutes.We said our goodbyes and off we went.
It was lunch time, so we went to the diner down the street and split a turkey club sandwich. We were back on the road again by 12:30 pm.
We arrived back in Rochester at about 5:30 pm. I was exhausted from all the driving.
That’s the trip in a nutshell.

We are off to Hillman Cancer Center by car!!!!!

Road Trip!!! It will take aproximately 5 hours to get there. I hope the weather isn't too bad.
Talk to you when we get back. My wife said I could not drive it alone.I don't know why. I'm a big boy. I can handle it.
Anyway, Take care..... Jimmy B

Flight to Pittsburgh might be cancelled due to bad weather!!!!!

I contacted Heather Blair with the backup plan:
Heather,the flight to Pittsburgh might be cancelled due to poor weather. I won’t know until later tonight. The back up plan is to drive the five hours. We might not get there until 12:00 pm on Friday. I hope this doesn’t mess up your schedule. I’ll let you know once I get the word.
Looks Like a ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am all set for going to Hillman Cancer Center on Friday!!!!

Both pilots are set for Friday's flight. Scott Neal will be my return pilot.
Hear is the schedule for Friday:7:30 am Leave Rochester for Pittsburgh9:00 am Arrive in Pittsburgh9:00 to 10:00 am catch a cab to the Hillman Cancer Center10:00-12:00 pm Blood work.... remove stitches in back and check under the hood.12:00 - 1:00 pm Cab back to Airport2:00 pm Leave Pittsburgh for Rochester3:30 pm Arrive in Rochester
I hope I make all the connections.Hey!!!!! It is an adventure. Don't sweat the small things. I will pass this on to Heather Blair so I can get VIP status. Yeah right?
Take Care and keep those message boards lighting up!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. I think I need to squeeze in lunch somewhere. Hey, It's only food. Maybe I can get a box lunch to go from the hospital."A Happy Meal"
P.S.S. I hope the weather holds out.

Angel Flight to Pittsburgh!!!!!

I have my Angel flight to Pittsburgh this friday set. Andy Reinach will pilot the plane down to Pittsburgh. I am still waiting to hear about the return flight.

Gave away some blood today.

Gave away some blood today. I am in the process of getting ready for the trip down to the Hillman Cancer Center this Friday.

Stay cool.!!!!!! It is going to be a HOTTTTTTT One.

Angel Flight to Pittsburgh!!!!!

I have my Angel flight to Pittsburgh this Friday set. Andy Reinach will pilot the plane down to Pittsburgh. I am still waiting to hear about the return flight.

A juicing I will go!!!!!!!!!!

I am going off line for a while. I am going to try my sister Jody’s juicing recipe. This should be fun. Chemistry at it’s finest. I’ll let you know how it comes out.

See in a bit. TTFN

Was it a Placebo or was it Memorex????????

Was it a Placebo or was it Memorex???????? Why did my Blood Sugar Spike to 300 mg/dl , when the norm is 90-110 mg/dl???

I started to jump to the conclusion, that I was given a placebo. The data that I had to work with showed a jump in my blood sugar level.
The first reading is in the am and the second is pm.
Date Data mg/dl
7/8 130/ 73
7/9 151/77
7/10 126/129
7/11 no readings (Having a great time with Margaret and Caroline) I was a bad boy!!! Patrin started
7/12 256/247 Dacarbazine started
7/13 297/163/158 10 units of insulin injected
7/14 148

I wanted to know what caused the spike in Blood Sugar Level?
I began to use my research skills on the internet and got both MSDS sheets (Material safety Data sheets) for each of the compounds.
I start with Patrin aka Carbaryl 1-Naphthalenol methylcabamate. M.W. 201.22
Molecule Forumla C12H11NO2
Water Solubility ----- Insoluble 0.00826 g/100 mL
This compound doesn’t look like it would breakdown into an alcohol easily. So, I ruled out that patrin was the cause. Could it be a sugar placebo? On 7/13 the 158 reading was taken 1 hour after taking the Patrin. This indicated that the patrin was the real thing and not a placebo. I will double check this morning after I take the patrin again. I will repeat the experiment and make sure I get similar results.

Next, I looked up Dacarbazine For Injection. One problem, I did not know the manufacturer. I used Teva Sicor as the manufacturer. But, I assume the formulation would be similar.
DTIC…… 5-(3,3-Dimethyl-1triazeno) imidazold-4-carboxamide
Molecule Formula C6H10N6O
Water Solubility----- Slightly
The DTIC did not look like it would convert to a sugar readily. So there is something more going on. If it is only slightly soluble in water, they would alter the composition to make it more soluble. So I went to the Composition and Active ingredients section of the Material safety data sheet. And there it was. It stood out like a soar thumb. It was a mixture of three compounds. Dacarbazine, Citric Acid, Anhydrous, and Mannitol.
Mannitol was the culprit.
1,2,3,4,5,6-Hexanehexol AKA Manna Sugar
Molecular Formula HOCH2(CHOH)4CH2OH
Water soluble
It could be any where from 10 to 20 Percent by weight.

The mystery is solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was the Mannitol causing the spike in my Blood Sugar Level. I will verify it on my next cycle of Chemotharapy. (August 2nd)

That it from here.

I have some letters to write to my lovely Ladies

Take Care

P.S Anne M, I solved the mystery without spending a dime on GC-MS. Kodak would be proud of me. I kept down the charge rate. Only Kidding

Thanks for stirring up my research skills again. It would be very nice to get back to Work!!!!!!!!!

The softer side of Jim Breitfeller!!!!

I wrote the Caroline and Margaret. I hope was wasn't too sappy.Here they are:
Caroline,In our conversions at the dinner table, you talk about wanting to go back and see the “windy city of Chicago”. I wish I could make your dream come true. Just look at this picture and close your eyes. Dream that you are there, with the wind blowing through your lovely hair and the smell of fruits in the outside markets. You hear the horns of the cars and the people scurrying to their daily activities. You can be there in mind and spirit. Just let yourself go. Go back and cherish the good old days. I know they are happy memories.We also have great memories of the present. I hold dear to my heart the time we had together with Margaret at the dinning hall at the Schenley Gardens. You and Margaret made me feel right at home and I want to thank you for that.I did make it to the hospital on time, but I had some German Chocolate Cake still on my face. It was delicious. Thanks for taking such good care of me. You are truly a special dear friend for life.Please stay in touch. I will try to stop by from time to time if my schedule allows it. If not, I will stay in touch with snail mail.
Take Care ….. Your friend forever
Jim Breitfeller
Next!!!!!!!!!!!!
Margaret,I made it through my first dose of Chemotherapy without a scratch. The picture above reminded me of your plight out of Berlin. It was great to have you and Caroline as my dining companions during my stay at Schenley Gardens. I really enjoyed the walk in the garden and the wonderful story of your life.You gave me a very different perspective on life and I want to thank you for it. You have so much to offer other people. (Your wisdom, experience, and your love of life.) I will treasure it forever.Please stay in touch. I will try to stop by from time to time if my schedule allows it. If not, I will stay in touch with snail mail.
P.S. Is Andre the server’s pants still staying up?
Take care…. Your Friend forever
Jim Breitfeller “wide field”

6:00pm the PK Studies at Montifore Hospital

I arrived at Montifore about 5:45 pm for my pj party. I t was the night of the All Star Game. Perfect, I could watch the game and give blood at the same time. You have to learn how to multi-task. So, up to 8th floor I went and checked in with the nurse at the front desk. She said “Mr. Breitfeller, you are right on time.” She then led me to a room 847 N bed 2. “This is you home for the night. Get yourself comfortable.” So, I changed into my sexy shorts that I been wearing even before I got married. You know the ones, silky and has Kings Point printed on them. The most comfortable shorts I have ever encountered. I could tell you how I come to have them but, this a family channel.
So, I jumped into the bed and the nurse Beverly started to put lines in my left arm. One line was for the Chemo in the morning, and the other to draw blood.
At 8:00 pm I got my 400 mg dose of Patrin I think. In this part of the trial, I have a 50/50 chance of receiving the drug. It could be a glucose placebo. I think I might check it out with GC-MS to get the scoop if I can get it in at Kodak. All fair in war and games. Plus I would know if I am wasting my time an efforts. Hey! What would you do in my situation? Take advantage of what you have at your disposal.
Patrin™


The treatment of metastatic cancers present serious problems for clinicians. Many cancers are not discovered at all until they have progressed to this late stage and response rates to therapy are often very low in these cancers; for example, only around 15-20% of metastatic melanoma cases respond to the commonly used chemotherapies dacarbazine and temozolomide.

Such low response rates are the result of resistance. Cells become resistant due to the presence of AGT (O6-alkylguanine DNA-alkyltransferase). AGT detects and specifically removes alkylated base damage, effectively undoing the damage caused by alkylating chemotherapies.

Patrin™, an orally bioavailable small molecule, acts to increase the responsiveness of tumour cells to alkylating chemotherapy treatments by specifically inactivating cellular AGT, making cancer cells susceptible to the DNA damage caused by chemotherapy

Identifying new drugs and targets for melanoma therapy is critical, considering that melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is resistant to currently available therapeutics. Much work has been focused on finding novel drugs and exploring different treatment options that could increase the overall survival of patients.

Anyway, Blood was drawn 0, 30 min., 1, 2,3,4,5,6 hours after taken Patrin . So, this part was over at 2:00 am . The next part was the dacarbazine was introduce and the blood drawn process started all over again. I did not get released until Wednesday at 3:30 pm.

My wife made the trip down to Pittsburgh and we drove back to Rochester last Night and arrived at 10:00 pm. We made a couple of stops along the way.

I am starting to see some of the side effects nausea and my blood sugar is on the rise. I will contact Heather Blair and Melissa DeMark from the Hillan Cancer Center. I’ll Let you know what they say.

That is it for now. Take Care

jimmy B.

Dinner before the PK Studies at Montifore Hospital

It was just enough time to take a nap in my room (527) and recharge my cell phone. Dinner time was just around corner so I decided to go down to the T floor (Terrace) about 4:15pm. One of the elevators was still out, so I knew it would be a mad rush to get down to dinner. I waited by the elevator until one of the orderlies to set the elevator to T. It is protection for the Alzheimer patients on the floor, and the only way I could get off the floor. When the door opened there was only one wheel chair patient in the elevator. By the time we got to the terrace floor there were 4 chairs and 4 orderlies and myself.
Guess What? You were right. I was the on male on the elevator and the ladies were making google eyes at me. We continue to make the trip on the elevator a local, and stopped at every floor. By the time we got to the terrace floor all the women were singing and carrying on. And somehow I became the leader of the pack. I told them how lovely they all looked. You should have seen all the smiles.

We file off the elevator in single file, and by the time we got to the dining hall it looked like a wheel chair parade, singing and laughter throughout the hallway. What a scene. It reminded me of those Carnival Cruise commercials. With Characters all on board like Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Mi Mi on the Drew Carey Show. A lot of makeup, I think it was just for me. Now you know my head is getting big. Too bad my cell phone was still charging. I would have loved to take snap shots of it. It was a “Kodak picture perfect moment”.

Anyway, our dinner choices were roasted chicken with rice pilaf and squash or corn beef and cabbage with a dinner roll.

Since I needed an early departure to the hospital, I was the first to arrive at the table. Andre, was looking dapper with his uniform on. He greeted me with a friendly “hello” and asked me what I would like to drink. This time I wanted to try something different. So, I asked for a Shirley Temple. He said “We have no Shirley Temple’s here, but there are a lot of other women here. I guess he is too young to get the joke. So I went with my usual, diet coke. While Andre was getting the coke, Margaret arrived. We chatted a little bit while waiting for Caroline to show up. Now the dining hall was getting full and I knew if I did not place my order soon, I would loose the opportunity to eat before the Pharmakinetics studies (PK). So Margaret and I placed our orders. Margaret got the corn beef and cabbage as I would have guess. I on the other hand, wanted the breast of chicken.
It was now about 5:10 pm and I needed to leave at 5:25 pm. So, as we got our entrees, I began to shovel in the food as politely as I could without choking on the rice pilaf. Our conversation was almost nonexistent. I was almost finished when Caroline arrived. She was quite surprised that we started without her. Then Margaret reminded her that I had to leave for the hospital quite soon. Caroline placed her order (dark chicken, legs and thighs).
She then pulled out a post-it with her address on it. Margaret said she had forgotten. I said “don’t worry, I have a pen. You can write your address on the other side”. And she did. Meanwhile the time was 5:16 pm. So, Caroline haled down Andre like she was haling a cab in New York City. I could not believe the lung on that woman. She yelled out “Andre! Andre! Andre! Jim has to catch a ride to the hospital soon and he can’t leave without having the German chocolate cake.” The whole room turned and looked at me. I just smiled. She had become protective of me. What A friend.
I finished the cake with no time to spare.
We said our goodbyes, and that we would stay in touch. I then rushed to the lobby to catch my ride to the hospital.

To be continued…..

Lunch with my ladies Friends (Caroline and Margaret)

I entered the dining hall at precisely 11:30 am to see if I could beat my dining companions to the table. I figured they were a on a tight schedule. Boy was I wrong!!!
I sat there for a good 15 minutes before Margaret Baum (from Berlin, Germany)
arrived. Andre, our server for lunch and asked if I was ready to order. I said “Yes”
and placed my order for a “Manhattan on the rock, stirred not shaken”. He gave me the most confused look and proceeded to tell me coffee, juice, milk and soda. So, I splurged, and had a diet coke. By this time, I saw Margaret coming with a great big smile from the well conditioned elevators, which one was broken. The door on the third floor kept opening and closing. It scared the residences to no end. So, we were working off one elevator for the day.
Once Margaret sat down with her cane on the back of the chair, I asked her I she had come down for breakfast. She said “Caroline and I don’t come down for breakfast. “It is too early. We like to read the newspaper at that time” in her thick German accent. By then, Caroline Dubis appeared with her walker. We all place our order with Andre and choose the turkey club.
While waiting for our entrees to come from the kitchen, I started small talk by asking what the meanings of our last names were. Baum in German means … tree and Dubis in French means … wood or lives in wood or woodcutter. I told them that Breitfeller meant …large field. Margaret corrected me and said that it was Breitfelder which meant large field. I said, they must have been drinking too much beer and the D got inadvertely got transcribed to a L. Hey!!! It sounds good.
Anyway, lunch was good, and Margaret invited me on a walk on the terrace and garden after lunch. Hey!!!! A date! I wonder if my wife will think I am cheating on her. Nahhhhhh! So off we went. Margaret be began telling her story of her flight out of Berlin before Hitler came into power. It was very interesting. We walked and talked for a couple of hours. She was a great story teller and I was the eager listener. She was so descriptive, that it started to play like the movie (Schindler's List) in my mind. It was so amazing to me, of what kind of life she has led and the endurance of the hardship for all these years. She is quite the remarkable women. She told me she has no regrets. I wanted to give her a great big huge, but I thought not on our second date, and I did not want to squeeze her out of her Depends, so we said our goodbyes.
We would meet at dinner for the last time.

To be continued…….