No, this title isn't a commentary on this spring's dreary weather in Oregon (though it certainly could be) but rather about the pharmacy that Mom currently has dripping into her veins today. Let's put it this way: she has 3 different lines to connect to going into her central line/port (and yes, I know I have my terminology slightly off) and two of them are doubled up and she has other bags waiting to be connected. Right now the IV pole contains (among other bags) Potassium, Magnesium, Sodium Bicarbonate, Neo, Saline solution, and a glucose solution.
The big hitter on the pole is Neo (Neo-synephrine) - the tool that the staff use to manage blood pressure when an IL-2 patient's body can't maintain it any more. Because it's such a heavy hitter drug, it must be titrated very precisely, so patients are monitored 24/7 and their blood pressure is taken every 15 minutes. (During the couple of hours that I was there I watched her nurse come in and dial it up and (mostly) down) multiple times). Mom is certainly not looking forward to trying to get sleep over the next few days with a pressure cuff squeezing her every 15 minutes.
The reason she had to be on Neo is that at this point her blood pressure wasn't stabilizing and they had already tried keeping it up by IV boluses. And since they're hoping to squeeze in a couple more doses before she goes home (maybe 1 a day?) they're expecting that she's going to need to be on the drug for the duration.
She wasn't able to get her 3 pm dose due to her low pressure, but they're expecting her to get her 11 pm dose unless her blood work shows some really funky numbers. Not to say that her electrolytes are playing nice; they're all over the place (hence all the electrolyte drips). But at the moment they're enough under control to continue the treatment.
So the story for the next few days is going to be handling her with kid gloves and trying through all sorts of medical (IV drips, anti-nausea and anti-diarrhea drugs) and non-medical (warm blankets, salty food) means to get her a little bit more of the medicine each day. We'll see...
Doses: 5 for 7 of 14
Whew! That's a lot of stuff! Hugs and prayers continue!
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