3rd Dose Despite of the Blood Pressure

Well like all things at the moment I spoke to soon, when I said Steves blood pressure was behaving itself! Literally minutes after I pushed the button to publish the blog, did things take a turn for the worse!! Steves blood pressure dropped to below 100, which is too low!


So they gave him 3 bags of fluid to try and raise it back up again but it didn’t work. And until the blood pressure is up, they cant give him the next dose of HD IL2.

After 4 hours of trying to get it back to a level which meant they could continue with the HD IL2 it was decided best to wait until the day staff come on, which was only a few hours away, as it was 5:30am by the time this conclusion was made! At just after 9am the decision was made to start Steve on Noradrenalin.

This is the drug that basically makes your heart beat faster and constricts your veins, so your blood pressure rises! It also makes Steve feel like crap!
And means that as it is putting a lot of pressure on your heart the nurses need to do "Obs" (observations) on you every 15 minutes! Obs typically consist of blood pressure check, temperature check, pulse check, counting your breathing (not totally sure what this is for???) but from what I can see them count how many times you breath in and out for a minute! Im sure Ive missed one out! Lucky Im not a Nurse, as it is probably a vital one!

This process means Steve doesn’t get any rest! Nor do the Nurses but Im looking at this from Steves point of view :-) Any how without this drug, Steve can not continue, so it is what it is!

Once the Noradrenalin started working and Steves BP (Blood Pressure- Look at me with all my lingo tonight! :-) You can tell Ive not been talking much today, cant you!) rose above 100 the 2nd Dose of HD IL2 was given at 10am.

Tom popped round to check on Steve and felt we were still on target for 5 to 7 doses and wanted to try for another dose at 6pm, with the possibility of another one at 2am!

The side effects of dose 2 were hard but Steve managed them in his usual way of pure determination to get through, most of the time in Silence! He hasn’t had any sickens today but did have a quite a lot of rigors (shakes!)

He has had a unusual pain in his left shoulder which has meant that he couldn’t lift his arm, without supporting it but Steve didn’t think it was worth mentioning to the doctor! But for those of you who know me well I decided to track a doctor down to tell them! Don’t you just love interfering girlfriends! 20 minutes later and a mobile x-ray is wheeled in the room, as the doctors wanted this pain checked out incase it was something to do with the line they had put in his neck! Now that is a piece of machinery! It practically took up the whole of the room and it was on wheels, with an internet cable attached, so they can send the digital image to anywhere the doctor is! Clever!! Feel Im getting a little too excited about a piece of medical equipment!

Steve was so embarrassed and kept giving me a look, as if to say what have you done now! But in my mind, better to be safe then sorry!
They are still not sure what it is wrong but are going to look into doing an ultra sound tomorrow.

Steve was still able to receive the 3rd dose at 6pm.

Since about 8pm he has had a temperature of 39.9! And 2 lots of Rigors and his blood pressure has dropped. He is feeling very unwell at the moment but who wouldn’t be with those side effects. He feels spaced out and is unable to move, he hasn’t eat today but has taken a liken to cold Ribena, so Ive been buying it in little cartons and keeping it in an ice bucket, so it is properly chilled! He can only have little sips at a time, otherwise he feels quite sick.

There will be no more doses tonight, as he needs to rest and get his temperature back down again.

So a couple of sleeping tables and some paracetamol given about 20 minutes ago and some ice wrapped in a flannel rubbed over his body by moi! And he is sleeping! Im going to go in a minute, as I didn’t leave here until 5:30am last night and am totally shattered.

Will be back first thing, as they are planning on giving him the 4th dose at 9am.