Day 2 interleukin 2 treatments, from a loved ones perspective.

Written by Gloria, Kevin's wife, from a loved one and caregivers perspective.

Today, October 21st, Kevin had his first treatment at 2am, right on schedule.  He didn't have any slide effects until 5:30 am when he became very cold with rigors, which is kind of like uncontrollable shaking.  The nurse brought him warm blankets and morphine.  Important to know is you should ask for it as soon as the rigors start.  Waiting too long can lead to extra nausea. He became nauseated around 6 am and they gave him some IV meds for that too.  About 8 am, he became flush, red all over his body.  His pulse went up to about 145, its normally about 65.  His potassium, creatinine, magnesium, white blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit and platelets dropped significantly.  He got a fever and his blood pressure dropped a bit.  The creatinine dropping is good, but the others need be watched.   About an hour before his next dose, his blood pressure, pulse and temperature went back to normal.  He is sleeping quite a bit, but is still able to walk a little, brush his teeth and shave.

The doctors say that you will put on a lot of water weight by the time you are done with your treatment, so its a good idea to bring sweat pants to go home in.  You could gain enough that your cloths can get snug.  They say this will come off quickly.

meds

Kevin looking a little flush

He had his second treatment at 11:15.  Later than what they should have but there was a hold up at the lab.  They check blood work prior to giving every dose to make sure you're healthy enough to take more.  This nurse said that if you drip the interleukin 2 over 45 minutes rather than 15, patients seem to have less side effects.  So that's what they did this time.  unfortunately, the side effects on the second treatment were about the same as the first.

All of these side effects are normal.  Interleukin 2 is a naturally made protein called cytokines releases by some cells to fight invaders in the body.  This treatment is a man made IL-2 that floods the body and puts it in fighting mode to kill any cancer cells.  A normal reaction when one is sick is to get fevers, chills, body aches and pains.  This is just a bigger and badder reaction, fitting for a big and bad cancer.

Thanks for reading