Day +97: Anybody for Antibodies?

There are other places we would rather be than back in the hospital, but it’s where we need to be right now and we’re pretty well adjusted to the routine. After so many similar visits there is a rather sad sense of normalcy about the place. We checked in on Monday afternoon and Keith spent a pretty relaxed evening in his room after the usual lab-work and discussion with Dr. Clare Twist about what to expect in the following days. Behind the scenes though I had the distinct sensation that the medical staff were running around furiously in an effort to prepare all of the necessary things that need preparing before the first infusion – double checking everything and making sure all of the nursing staff who would be treating Keith were up to speed on the protocol. There’s an element of “uncharted waters” to this trial as there is with most trials I suppose, but it sort of felt to me like being at the Johnson Space Center on the eve of the first moon shot – a lot of really smart and confident people working on a very delicate problem with no room for error.

To make a long story short, Keith finished his first day of three scheduled days of monoclonal antibody therapy and there is a lot less anxiety in the air now that he successfully tolerated his first infusion and didn’t suffer any major side effects other than a mild fever and a period of very low blood pressure – all of which were controllable. While he was (and is) hooked up to an IV pain med pump that he can activate with the push of a button, he didn’t have to use it at all suggesting that the anticipated pain side effect didn’t really materialize as it apparently does for a lot of the patients. That’s a huge relief – he was pretty comfortable throughout the day even though he was knocked into ‘nap mode’ a couple of times from the meds. While awake, he managed to completely immerse himself into one of his GameBoy games, resulting in a strenuous thumb work-out that probably would have even impressed Chuck Norris.

The doctors were very pleased with the outcome of the day’s events, even commenting that we were in for a boring night.

Hmmm. I’ll take boring.