Today was a rough day. Jerek was still in a fog this morning. The chemo he got yesterday during the lumbar puncture really took a toll on him. He had to get more nausea medicine during the middle of the night last night and could barely keep his eyes open this morning. He was only up about 30 minutes before laying back down to rest. He didn't have an appetite today. When he found out he was definitely getting the rituxan today, he managed to get a sandwich down. This drug is known for having pretty bad reactions so they gave him Tylenol and benadryl before hand.
They also have to check his vitals every 30 minutes while it is running because fever and low blood pressure are both common reactions. As long as everything goes well, they increase the rate at which it runs every 30 minutes and ideally it is over in 4 hours. Jerek was not so lucky. He made it through the first 30 minutes ok. The next 30 minutes did not go as well. He didn't feel right and his head kept bothering him. He also felt sick and when he got up to head to the bathroom the nurse and I both noticed the hives he had developed on his back. She paged the doctor and went to get him nausea medicine. They had to stop the chemo and give him more benadryl as well as a steroid to prevent further reactions.
They gave him about a 30 minute break and began the chemo again. Unfortunately since he did have a reaction they had to finish letting it run at the lower rate. It made him feel so bad all he could do was lay in the bed. He developed a pretty bad headache and had trouble with his blood pressure dropping. They gave him pain meds for the headache and adjusted his regular iv fluid to bring his blood pressure up. 11 hours after they started, it was finally over. Please pray he is able to get some decent sleep tonight and that tomorrow is a better day.
They also have to check his vitals every 30 minutes while it is running because fever and low blood pressure are both common reactions. As long as everything goes well, they increase the rate at which it runs every 30 minutes and ideally it is over in 4 hours. Jerek was not so lucky. He made it through the first 30 minutes ok. The next 30 minutes did not go as well. He didn't feel right and his head kept bothering him. He also felt sick and when he got up to head to the bathroom the nurse and I both noticed the hives he had developed on his back. She paged the doctor and went to get him nausea medicine. They had to stop the chemo and give him more benadryl as well as a steroid to prevent further reactions.
They gave him about a 30 minute break and began the chemo again. Unfortunately since he did have a reaction they had to finish letting it run at the lower rate. It made him feel so bad all he could do was lay in the bed. He developed a pretty bad headache and had trouble with his blood pressure dropping. They gave him pain meds for the headache and adjusted his regular iv fluid to bring his blood pressure up. 11 hours after they started, it was finally over. Please pray he is able to get some decent sleep tonight and that tomorrow is a better day.