Day 12 of interleukin 2 treatments

October 31, 2014

It's been 7 days since Kevin's 9th and final dose of IL-2, for this round at least.  He has another round to go, then scans to see if it's working.

He is still getting a little better everyday.  He was able to take some niquil last night to combat the mild wheezing he has, and the runny nose.  They were keeping him up and he couldn't get a good nights sleep.  It worked well for him, he slept through the night until about 9am this morning.  I hope that today will be a good day for him since he slept better  :)

Happy Halloween everyone!  We will be going to my in-laws for trick or treating with our kids.  Where we live, it's very country and we may get 2 kids looking for some candy, if we are lucky.  I don't think Kevin is up to walking house to house with us, so I'll just take our youngest.  Our oldest is "too old" to trick or treat anymore  :(  I guess they all have to grow up.

Thanks for reading and stay safe tonight!!

Here is an old photo of Kevin and I in Jamaica.  He was complaining about something and I was doing "boo hoo" and rubbing his eyes, hee hee.  He does that too me all the time, so it was payback, lol.  I think this was from the mid 90's.  Love this pic!

Day 11 of interleukin 2 treatments

October 30, 2014

It's been 6 days since Kevin's 9th and final dose of IL-2.  His next round is November 10th, then he's scanned.  If there is improvement, he will have 2 more rounds at the beginning of January.

Today Kevin went into the hot tub for a little bit, he was worried about the rash he had from the treatments, but the hot tub didn't bother it too much.  All is all, everyday get's a little better for him.  His side effects are slowly going away, this is not a quick recovery.  Although, as I mentioned in other posts, the major side effect go away quickly, it's the little lingering ones that seem to last.  Last night he slept pretty well, the wheezing is almost gone.  The doctor said he could try an allergy pill, or he can take Nyquil at night.  That's Kevin's go too drug when he's not feeling good, so he may just try that.

Yesterday, Kevin made us all dinner.  He likes to cook, so this was good for him.  He made chicken quesadillas, they were very yummy.  Our boys loved them too, which goes to show you they must have been delicious, lol.

Not much else to write about  :)  I'll keep writing until about day 14, then everyone will get a good idea of what to expect.  Thanks for reading  :)

Day 10 of interleukin 2 treatments

October 29, 2014

It's been 5 days since Kevin's 9th and final dose of IL-2, for this round at least.  He has another round to go, then scans to see if it's working.

He is feeling about the same, a tiny bit better.  It seems he get's a little more energy everyday.  He went out shopping with me and walked quite a bit today.  Then he slept for 2 hours, lol.  But that seems to be the way it goes.  Tomorrow I bet he'll be extra tired from today's gallivanting.

Yesterday he developed a sinus drip, which is another common side effect.  He's still wheezing at night, I tried cleaning all the dust and dog hair to see if it would help, but it didn't.  Kevin used to have allergies and asthma as a child, so I thought perhaps the histamines in his body where super loaded like his white blood cells.  And therefore, they are making him have a sinus drip and a little wheeze.  He's waiting a call back from his doctor to see if he could possibly take an anti-histamine.

Not much more to write, which is good news  :)  Thanks for reading

Day 9 of Interleukin 2 treatments

October 28, 2014

It's been 5 days since Kevin's 9th and final dose of IL-2, for this round at least.  He has another round to go, then scans to see if it's working.




Kevin

He seems a tiny bit better today, everyday get's a tiny bit better.  He isn't on the anti-nausea anymore, but still has bouts of discomfort from being nauseated, they go away on their own.  He's still taking the cipro (antibiotic), he has to take it until Saturday morning.  Cipro is to make sure he doesn't get an infection from the PICC line they put in to administer the meds.  In my opinion, the nausea is caused from the cipro, he isn't eating as much as he used to, and taking cipro on an empty stomach isn't the best.  But he is eating a little bit more each day, which is good.  If you like to eat yogurt, which Kevin doesn't, it would be a good idea to eat as much as you can.  This will help with the side effects of cipro and what it does to the gastrointestinal tract.

He's sleeping less then he was during the day, which is good.  Last night he didn't have as many bouts of coughing, so he pretty much slept through the night.  Thank the Lord for that, lol.  Not sure I could handle another night of being up for hours on end.  I hadn't slept through the night in 7 days.  I shouldn't complain, after all he is going through.  But I did anyway, lol.

Kevin with Nicky and Moose

He told me that he seems to wheeze more when he's lying down in bed.  But not when he's lying down in the recliner.  Could be that the recliner is still on an angle OR it could be that we have dogs and the bedroom needs a good cleaning.  I will get rid of all the dust and dog hair today and see if this helps.

Kevin just told me that he's had these vivid dreams since last week, when the treatment started.  He also said he had these weird type of "hallucinations" for lack of a better word.  They would happen when he would close his eyes, and he'd open them quickly because he thought someone was there.  I didn't notice him acting odd, but I thought it was something noteworthy.


All in all, things are getting better  :)  Thank you for reading!

Day 8 of interleukin 2 treatments

Monday October 27, 2014

It's been 4 days since Kevin had his 9th and last dose of IL-2.  He's doing a tiny bit better today, a tiny bit.  He's still very tired, his mouth sores are starting to get a little better too.  He's lost almost all of the water weight he gained as a side effect of IL-2, all but 4 pounds.  He was able to eat a bit last night, more than other nights.  He tries to do a few small meals, because his stomach can't handle a big one, it makes him nauseated.  He's still taking the anti-nausea meds and he's still taking cipro (antibiotic).  His skin got a little irritated, but not like some of the stories we heard about flaky peeling skin.  It was more red and itchy, and most of the redness is gone now, so at least that's one good thing.

Kevin, before our drive today 

Today we went for a ride.  Sounds funny to say that, because he's an adult, lol, but this is a big milestone for someone going through chemo.  I had to go to Lowes to get salt for the water softener, and he decided he'd come along.  He even went inside.  I only had the one thing to get, so it was a quick trip.  It took everything out of him though, so now he's sleeping.  But that's o.k. because I was happy that he WANTED to go.  I think that's a good sign that he maybe in an upward direction to getting better.  Slowly but surely.  Then the poor guy has to do it all again November 10th.  He said "I don't want to talk about the next time, I just want to get through this time."  Fair enough.  It's not an easy journey, but I sure hope we get some excellent news when he's scanned.  He is supposed to have his scans December 15th or so.  We don't have any set date for that, but somewhere in that area.  Then about January 5th he will have his next round of treatments which will be one week on, 2 weeks off, one week on, then a re-scan 5 weeks later.

If the first set of scans show that there was no improvement, then he won't have the second round of IL-2.  If that's the case, there is another type of meds he can take that has good results in keeping the cancer the same size, sort of like a "controlled cancer".  I believe that one is called sutent, although there maybe a few different ones for that.  I'll write more about that in another blog IF we need it.  I am asking all to pray that we won't need any other meds and that IL-2 will be his cure.

Thank you for reading  :)

Day 7, Interleukin 2 treatments

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Kevin started his interleukin 2 treatments on the 20th, they ended on the 24th.  He still has a cough, and some mild wheezing.  The wheezing seems to be mostly when he lies down.  His skin itches, but it isn't bad enough to take anything for it.  He's been nauseated, so he took some anti-nausea meds which worked.  His mouth hurts a lot from the sores, and he isn't really hungry.  He eats a little and very soft food.  He's still very tired and getting a bit cranky about it all.  I think he just wishes he was better, but IL-2 takes a lot out of you.

I will keep updating everyone until he is back to himself.  I am writing this blog so others will know what to expect.  Although, everyone is different, I think these side effects hit most people.  Feel free to read the other blogs about the day by day side effects and everything he went through.

I also wanted to say that the Nurses at Duke University Hospital in Durham, on the 9100 level, were pretty amazing.  I am sure the other nurses are amazing too.  They were fast, caring, courteous and didn't mind at all if you asked questions.  I have been in hospitals before where the nurses and doctors got annoyed for asking questions.  That is not the case here, they encourage it.

Thanks for reading  :)

Day 6 of now Post Interleukin 2 treatments

Saturday, October 25, 2014

We are home now, we made it home last night at about 6pm.  They prescribed Lasix, cipro (antibiotic), Nystatin for the thrush and nausea meds.  His blood pressure and pulse are back to normal, so his body is getting back to normal.  But he still feels like he has the flu.  He has muscle aches, bone aches and pain in his mouth from the thrush.  Compared to when he was in the hospital, he is doing better, but still feels like he has the flu.  They say that just as fast as the symptoms come on, they will go away.  It is true, except for some remaining flu like symptoms.  His thrush is mostly gone, but now he has mouth sores.  We are using salt water and baking soda combo recipe: 1 cup warm water, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/8 tsp salt, swish and spit.  Unfortunately it tastes bad and it made him gag and vomit.  So I   think we will have to stop that.

He's developed wheezing tonight.  I think I will need to call the doctor tomorrow.  He's also been getting itchy skin.  We have meds for that called gabapentin, hopefully they will work.

He has lost about 5 pounds of water weight, which is good.  He took Lasix to take some of the water weight off that he put on.  It's doing the trick.

Here is an older picture of us at our wedding, as you could probably tell since I'm wearing a wedding dress, lol.  The other one is about 5 years ago, of Kevin on Lake Norman, NC, where we live.  Just thought I'd share.

Kevin and I 8/22/97

Cruising Lake Norman Summer 2009