Chapter 413: Consultations

Keeley began her consultations the day after Halloween. She wasn't as worried as Aaron was about their daughter since she knew what teenage girls were like but was still a bit concerned. Violet had really been having a tough time lately at school.

She tried shaking those thoughts loose. She needed to concentrate on her first volunteer, a man in his mid-thirties with cystic fibrosis named James.

He knew that the average life expectancy for a person with the disease was about 40 years and his lungs had gotten progressively worse over time. This was his last ditch effort to save himself. He didn't even care about potential side effects and signed the waiver after briefly scanning it, no questions asked.

Keeley told him exactly what she would be doing, trying to explain vectors and cell replacement in the simplest terms she could. James didn't seem terrible concerned by the technical babble. He just wanted to be fixed.

Many of her consultation patients were the same. They were in their thirties and fearing the end of their rope. She still had a fair amount in their teens and twenties and even one eleven year old girl whose mother thought Keeley was a gift from the heavens that could save her child.

That had been a rough conversation. She made sure the woman knew the experimental nature of this research and that results varied even in the monkeys.

Eventually she let the girl into the trial but it was done reluctantly. If it failed for her, the mother would be crushed. At least they had signed the waivers so they couldn't sue her or DOMA if something went wrong.

Keeley, Shawn, and her other lab assistant Arisa had been hard at work modifying the DNA of the cell samples the volunteers provided. It would take a while for the solution to mature so they kept creating batch after batch for the new people who had been interviewed and deemed acceptable for the trial as they waited.

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Based on her previous research with other animals, Keeley and her team had decided to first test the effectiveness of the therapy by introducing the modified vectors in a certain dose once every two weeks. Volunteers were instructed to keep a journal of how they felt every hour they were awake.

Later, when they came back for the next round, they would share the journal with the researchers and compare it to a similar journal they kept a week before getting the first treatment. That would help them compare how the volunteers normally felt during those times of day to check for potential side effects. They also conducted a physical exam each time, especially focusing on the lungs.

An actual medical doctor had to be brought in for that part. Thankfully DOMA had one on their staff.

Keeley's schedule had become the craziest it had been since her PhD program. She worked down to the last minute in the lab before picking up the kids. Violet went to ballet. Kaleb stayed at school for basketball. Oliver had his clubs Mondays and Wednesdays. Nathan had piano lessons on Thursdays and soccer on Saturdays.

She drove all over the five boroughs of New York City and barely had time to make dinner and sleep. She barely managed to remember to do the fun traditions her children had come to expect for Thanksgiving and Christmas to boot. At least they wouldn't let her forget to decorate the house or make cookies or have hot chocolate parties as they watched Christmas movies.

Keeley felt oddly proud of them. Her mother's traditions had carried on strong since the kids cared that much.

But by the time January rolled around she was burned out and grateful the holidays were over. There had even been extra concerts and recitals. Violet had been invited to participate as a guest in the New York City Ballet's run of the Nutcracker for a few shows. They tried to rotate and invite different young talents in.

Keeley made sure that at least one family member attended each of her four shows. Even Noah attended one with his mom, making sure to give Violet a big bouquet of roses afterwards. She had been quite happy about that.

"Doctor Hale? My girlfriend caught a cold last week and I didn't get bronchitis like I usually do," James repeated, snapping her back to attention.

"That's wonderful! Did you catch the cold?" she asked, trying to tone down her excitement.

"Yes but it was just that. A cold," he said with a tone of disbelief. The poor guy had probably never had something as minor as a cold in his entire life.

"Tell me all of your symptoms as accurately as you can," Keeley instructed, ready to write down each tiny detail.

He explained it to her and he was right. That did sound like a simple cold. Nothing more, nothing less. Keeley knew better than most how awful it was to get more severe lung infections from a virus that barely affected other people. She had seen her brother experience it time and time again.

James was actually the most successful of her first trial's patients. He didn't even complain about side effects other than fatigue for a few days after receiving the treatments.

Fatigue was a pretty common one across all of the volunteers. A few people caught infections from the vectors they used to transmit the modified DNA. They were originally viruses, after all.

Keeley was mostly grateful nobody had showed any signs of tumors yet. That was a worrisome side effect seen in some other gene therapy clinical trials that resulted in the research getting scrapped. There was a reason this wasn't a standard treatment yet.

The trial finished in February and everyone showed a slowed progression of the disease. A few people hadn't had any mucus wall buildups in months. It wasn't an all-out cure but it was definitely working!

Keeley was so relieved. Nobody got seriously hurt from the results of her research. Of course, this wasn't the only trial. She had to do at least ten before she could submit her findings to the FDA and move into Phase II of trying to get the treatment approved.

She would need to keep up with the original patients as well to see if things reverted once the treatments stopped or if the now healthy cells would replace the unhealthy ones naturally over time. It had worked in the animals but there was no guarantee it would in humans.