Tuesday: A day of ups and downs

Sorry for the late post. Here's the Day 2 update on Mom.

The ups:

• She's 4/4 on doses and is thus likely at least half-way through receiving the drug. (Even though there are 14 potential doses, I base this statement on the fact that she was able to tolerate 9 doses last time (actually...she tolerated 8..it was the 9th that totally pushed her over the edge) and almost everyone receives fewer doses in cycle 2 than in cycle 1)
• While she's a little more nauseous than last time, I don't think she's been throwing up and the rest of her gastrointestinal symptoms haven't appeared yet
• She's still really clear-headed
• She ate two more meals than last time. Cycle 1 she was done with food after lunch the first day. But this time she had soup and jello for dinner and a hard boiled egg and mango smoothie for breakfast so she got a little more nutrients in before swearing off eating.

The downs:

• She feels really lousy (Lousier than last time at this point) in the having a super flu sort of way.
• The chills have hit her way harder this time around. For 3 of the 4 doses she's gone into violent shakes and rigors. The first two times she had held off on narcotics and managed it just with being mummified with hot blankets but evidently for her 3 pm dose she needed Demerol to try and bring them back under control. That knocked her for a loop for awhile but it sounds like she's feeling a little better now (approaching 8 pm)
  
• She has some sort of weird pins and needles pricking sensation all over her body that actually aren't on the normal list of side effects.

Her blood pressure is hanging in there, though it did have one super low reading (80 something over 40 something) in the middle of the night. They boosted it back up however and were able to continue with treatment.

We haven't seen many of our favorite nurses from the last cycle yet but the new ones have also been really good. Today Mom was joined by her good friend Cindy who went through this treatment herself a number of years ago. So she's a wonderful person to hang out with Mom for a day or two. Not only has she been through it so she can explain/empathize but she's a fantastic inspiration and example of someone for whom IL-2 resulted in a complete response for multiple years (and counting).

They'll reassess her blood pressure and blood work over the course of the next few hours and decide whether or not she'll receive her 11 pm dose. Keeping fingers crossed that she is able to.

Thanks for following along. Knowing you're out there helps her a lot.

Becca