Day 1 of interleukin 2 treatments, Kevin's journey to becoming cancer free.

Today, October 20th, we arrived at Duke University Hospital Cancer Center at 2 pm.  We went for labs first, then met with the Physicians Assistant to go over the treatment plan. We had a mess up in scheduling time, we were supposed to get here earlier but no one told us until 9 am today.  They called Kevin and said "can you be here in an hour", lol.  We live 3 hours away so that wasn't going to happen.  I guess even the best hospitals can make mistakes.

The plan of action is to start the first dose at 2 am.  Normally they would start them at 6 pm, but since we were "late", we have to wait for the next dose time which happens to be 2am.  There can be a total of 14 doses, but most people can only handle between 8 and 10.  They are giving them around the clock at 10 am, 6 pm and 2 am.  They put in a PICC line, which is a long flexible tube put into a large vein in your upper arm.  The tip of this tube ends in  the superior vena cava or upper part of the chest.

 

So far the staff here is wonderful!!!!  The room is a little small for two, but we'll manage.  They do have a chair/recliner/bed I get to sleep in.....oh sooo comfy, lol.  They have a fridge which is very useful since I am gluten free and I have to bring my own food, mostly for breakfast and lunch.  Plus, it's pretty expensive to eat here, so I will try to only purchase dinner while I'm here.  There is a full bath, like most hospitals rooms, and we are on the 9 th floor, the penthouse lol.

I will write more about how he does after his first and second treatments.

Thanks for reading