Day 4, interleukin 2 treatments. We are getting close to the end of treatments.

Thursday, October 24, 2014

I must say, this week is going pretty quickly, although Kevin may not agree, lol.  Kevin's 7pm treatment was given on Wed evening, it was his 6th treatment.  The reaction was the same as the others, I see a pattern here lol.  He did need 2 doses of morphine, which the nurses gladly gave him.  His 2am treatment, the 7th, went pretty much the same way, except his rigors took 3 hours to start. I feel like a puma waiting for prey after he gets his treatments.  Except I'm waiting for rigors, not prey  :)   So far he didn't get the usual rash/itchy/dry skin that can be common with IL-2.

At around 8am, Kevin was saying he doesn't think he can go on with this treatment, and that this dose may be the last.  I spoke to him and told him to take it dose by dose, that is the best way to handle it.  And I told him if he can't do anymore, then that is totally fine since he had the average doses of what most can handle.  So he's decided to go ahead and take the 10am (8th) dose.  He's a real trooper.  The doctor said "make sure you listen to your body, when it says stop it's o.k. to stop.  Too much isn't better when it comes to IL-2"  Words of wisdom I thought I'd share with you.

Noteworthy info:  Kevin has bad rigors, they are his one big complaint, lots of other complaints too since this is indeed a butt kicking drug.  So the nurse today said "why don't we give him the morphine at the time he usually get's the rigors or a half our before and cut it off at the pass?"  His rigors are almost the same time, 2 hours after the treatment is started.  So we did that and it worked GREAT.  Until Kevin was feeling so well he got up to use the bathroom and wanted to go for a walk.  Not a good idea, hee hee.  The rigors started and he had to get to bed and have another dose of morphine.  But they did go away very quickly.  So I think that is what we will do the next time, and for the second round of IL-2.

He took the 6pm dose (9th), but said he didn't want the 2am dose.  For some reason that dose is the hardest on his body.  I'm not sure why.  His 9th dose was given and the morphine was done the same, before the rigors.  It seems to be working great for him  :)