ICU

As I’ve said before, never a dull moment. On Monday of this week Ben came into the clinic to receive another round of treatment. This is the time where he needs to spend the night to have the chemo drugs administered over a 2 day period. One of the drugs has some adverse effects on the heart while the other can cause a fever which will

disappear after 2 days. This is the second time he has received this combo.

The doxorubicin was given first in the form of a push (syringe inserted into one of his lines and the medicine is “pushed” in his system). He usually vomits with this medicine 2 to 3 times from around 9pm to 5am. That he did. The ARA-C is given by IV from a small bag over a 24 hour period. He has had no side effects with this one ... until now!

About 4 hours after the ARA-C started going into his system, his mood changed from happily joking and playing around to a tired, lethargic, somber mood. As further time went by he seemed unusually quiet. The nurse checked his blood pressure and sure enough it was going down. So far down, that he was soon surrounded by 3 doctors, 2

surgeons and 3 nurses many from the Intensive Care Unit. His blood pressure was life threatening and they started pumping fluids into him through his IV at a very accelerated rate. This caused his face hands and feet to swell with the hydration he was getting. He was also had to have an oxygen mask to keep his oxygen intake within acceptable levels.

He was transferred to ICU where he received more hydration. He was set up to a heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and oxygen level monitor. He had an IV from his chest with 4 tubes running from it. He had an IV on his left hand with 2 tubes running from it. On his right hand he had an arterial IV (inserted where you feel your pulse on

your wrist). This allowed his blood pressure to be measured without using the cuE around his arm. Blood samples were also taken from this site. He was partially sedated as this was painful when inserting it.

He was given a steady dose of dopamine to help raise his blood pressure. Though it did that, he still remained at a critically low blood pressure level. As the night went on, his blood pressure stayed low but very slowly climbed. He threw up 2 more times. He was given Gravol to help the nausea but it was given through his IV on the left hand. As

soon as one drop went into his vein, he let out a scream which cause half the ICU staff to rush to the room. We were told, just after, that it might sting. Oh, it did alright! His whole left hand was sore and sensitive to the touch.

All this time he has been receiving antibiotics since the doctors did not know where this was coming from. They assumed it was another blood infection but cultures (it takes 48 hours to grow them) came back negative. The cause of all this, they speculate, is an acute reaction to the ARA-C. He had never had a reaction such as this and our

oncologist has never seen it in her 25 years in the Geld. The trouble is, he needs to take this ARA-C every 8 weeks until August 2008. She is consulting with other doctors and researching possible solutions.

Ben has not slept very well, needless to say. His blood pressure is improving slowly as the ARA-C wears off. He is now back on the cancer ward being closely monitored. I am writing this from the hospital but we are told that there is a good possibility that he may be able to go home Friday, Feb. 24th.

Update: It is now Friday and Ben’s sodium levels are low so they have kept him for a while. Around 3pm his blood was tested to check sodium levels again. It was over the minimum threshold so we were told that he can come home. Yippie!

He has been, once again, traumatized by the experience (as have we!) but he is always positive, courageous and strong. He has gone through so much pain, trauma and stress. It’s amazing how resilient and strong he is, not just physically but psychologically.

We come back to the hospital next week to check blood counts. Next round of chemo in two weeks ...