The Sixth Dose

Jason had a bit of a rough night yesterday so we were a little apprehensive about his next Interleukin dose. They decided to hold off on his 1 am dose and do the sixth dose this morning at 9 am. The first four hours went great. He felt fine and even managed to get down a bowl of cheerios. This gave Marjorie and I time to move all of our stuff from the hotel to the townhouse we are now occupying while Terry looked after Jason.

At about 1 pm this afternoon, things took a turn for the worse. It started with nausea, and then his blood pressure started to drop. It kept dropping...and dropping. The lowest it got was about 52 over 30 so we were all very worried. He also did not look well. He kept getting dizzy and lightheaded. He was clammy and covered in sweat. His nurse Rikki was wonderful. She kept on top of things all day. She put him on two separate blood pressure medications and right now he is at 100 over 52, which is a big improvement. He is also looking much better.

So after a discussion with his doctor, he thought that this should be Jason's last dose for his first course of Interleukin therapy. We were hoping to get to about 8 doses, but the doctor assured us that a patient is either a reponder or not, and the number of doses does not correlate with whether it will work or not. He thought that 6 was an adequate number of doses and that it wouldn't be worth it to push Jason any further at this point. So Jason will stay in the ICU until he can maintain his blood pressure without the medication. Then he will be moved to a regular hospital room for a day or two of recovery before he is allowed to come back with us to the townhouse. In two weeks we start this all over again.

I will continue to stay nights at the hospital with Jason while Terry and Marjorie have been running all kinds of errands to get the townhouse liveable and ready for Jason's arrival. They have also been spending as much time visiting Jason as the hospital allows and keeping everyone up to date with the blog.

There have been a lot of inquiries about what Jason might like or need. Everyone's comments have really meant a lot to him and we can't thank you enough for sending them. Everyone has been so encouraging! If anyone would like to send him a card, that would be great also. The address is finally posted in the blog. I also managed to force Jason to create a short Amazon wish list if anyone is interested. The link is attached in the blog below. Jason also likes gift certificates to Game Stop or Best Buy. He could also use a pair or two of comfy XL pajama bottoms. He usually wears his own T-shirts with them, so he doesn't need the pajama tops. Jason's buddies Steve and Jim are well connected at Playstation, so we will not be needing any more PSP games. Steve, I will send you the list you requested as soon as Jason is feeling a little better. Also, Marissa, I had a request to get 4 "live strong" bracelets from Marjorie. I remember you have one, so maybe you know how to get them for us? Suprisingly, they don't sell them here at the hospital but everyone around us seems to have them.

So even though Jason had a rough day today, he has gotten through the worst of it and will now be allowed to recover for a while. He has shown so much strength and courage this week. I could not be more proud of him. He would keep getting treatments if the doctor would let him, unfortunately, his body is telling him it is time to stop. We are all very optimistic that these treatments will work and again we want to thank all of you for your encouragement!