Nearly Done

Well, as planned, Heather got her 3:00 and 11:00 doses yesterday. The side effects are really ramping up, as is her misery along with them. 

I've always thought of taking a person's blood pressure as a non-invasive procedure, but the continual BPs since we have been here are really starting to take their toll on poor Heather's left bicep. For the last several days, fluid has been weeping out of her upper arm. Over the last 24 hours, she has developed abrasions along her bicep, that are very painful to the touch, let alone, the squeeze of the BP cuff. The nurses started taking her blood pressure on her forearm instead which worked for awhile, but she has now developed a rapid heart rate and they need to be sure that they are getting accurate blood pressures, so back to the bicep :( 

After reading that I'm sure everyone is wondering how she is doing with her IL-2 doses.... She received her 9th, 10th, and 11th doses yesterday.  Throughout the night, the nurses were able to get the dose of the BP medication down to near zero, but then, at around 4:00 this AM, her BP began to drop again. Her BP got low enough that they had to bump the BP med up to a point where they did not want to give her her 7:00 AM IL-2 dose. So dose #12 missed. 

It's 2:15 PM right now, and I can say with near certainty that she will not get her 3:00 dose. Heather has come up with a new twist for the doctors to sort through. Her heart rate sped up at about 11:30 to 190 beats per minute. Way too fast. They have been trying to figure out exactly why ever since. First thought was that she was just low on fluids, but she proved that wasn't the case after she got a bunch of IV fluids and her heart rate only slowed to 160. Next try, drugs... This does appear to be working, her HR has slowed to about 100, but is irregular. Something that may have to be fixed later, but she may convert to a regular rhythm on her own. 

The good news is that as I am typing this, I can hear her softly snoring in the background. She is tough!!!  She has told me several times that this is the hardest thing she has ever had to do.  I believe it, but she is doing great. Like I said, she will miss her 3:00 dose, but if the doctors give her the green light for the 11:00 dose, she will be happy to do it. 

Then on to recovering from this round and hopefully back home soon...