Treatment begins....kinda

How did treatment go you ask, oh if only you knew? Its Kim writing on Steve's behalf, he is okay just tired.
So we got up early this morning and headed up North, thankfully the car knows the way so she just heads the right direction. Things started out smoothly, had a quick quality of life questionnaire, did some final prep tests etc. I think Steve is tired of the ECG process and the stick on things.
The plan was to get the CP322, 100 mL over one hour via IV infusion. Sounds easy enough. Start time was 11:01...End time was 11:03. Not quite an hour. Just after starting the infusion Steve coughed a bit and said he wasn't feeling so good, the fabulous nurse, Tamara, and I just thought he was going to hurl no big deal. She shut off the IV pretty close to immediately, thank God. Steve got quite red and warm, one thing led to another and his blood pressure dropped. The worst set of numbers I heard was 54/31, it was hard to keep up as they called a "medical response team" and there were pretty close to 2 dozen really good medical people tending to Steve, and in true Steve fashion, in the midst of all of it, he looks up and asks "do you think we could get a few more people in here?"

After a couple giant bags of saline were speedily put in via IV and a total of 4 (2 were put in for the treatment, 2 additional ones were put in in case of need) IV ports put in him, things improved. Original plan was he was going to stay in the hospital overnight as they wanted to monitor him. They ran another ECG to see if it showed anything and everyone went off to discuss labs, tests, the new plan etc.

Well, a chest x-ray and CT scan came back normal (some good news), and Ian found out that this particular medication has had this reaction in other trial members. It was decided that Steve didn't need to stay overnight in the hospital so he came back to the hotel w/ me. Yeah.

So what's next? We will not be trying this medication again, not worth the risk. We are going to go with a medication Steve had read about a while back, Avastin. This will start on Wednesday next week. We are hopeful things will go well. This is a drug that has been used previously so it has a track record and they kind of know what to expect from it.

At this point, we don't know really how to feel. It is crazy scary to start this next treatment as it is similar in nature to the one we started/tried to start today. But it is crazy scary to put off treatment. But, today’s team of medical professionals reacted beautifully to the crisis and that makes me feel better. At least if something goes funky I know they know what to do.

All in all, believe it or not, things aren't that bad. We definitely have reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving!! We are super grateful to the doctors and nurses in Madison and those we have in Rockford. As well, neither of us knows how we would get through all of this without the love and support of all of you. Thank you so very much for all of the good thoughts and prayers you have sent this way, they really did their thing today.

This Thanksgiving, know that we give double thanks for all of you and wish you all time to enjoy your families and relax!!