Day 96 at St Jude

At 12am, a new nurse woke me up to get Jesse to go to the bathroom. When she is taking chemo, they want her peeing every 2 hours. And being it was a he, I have a feeling that he didn’t feel comfortable with helping her because he kept telling me he couldn’t get her to wake up. Until 6am, he woke me every 2 hours to help Jesse. I am okay with them waking me to help Jesse. It is sometimes just easier.

I woke at 8am when her day nurse came into assess her. I asked her again about the emend aprepitant. I was hoping that she could tell me why it wasn’t compatible. She said she’d run it by the doctors. I decided to bug my brother. Turns out from what he told me and the pharmacists here say combining emend aprepitant and ifosphomide can cause renal trouble. Jesse is already having renal trouble because of them being enlarged. Bummer, but I would rather keep her safe. And we now have fenegren that Jesse can take. She threw up so much last night that they gave her a dose, and it really helped.

Jesse slept until 9am. Around 11am, the nurse started the premedications before the etopophos. Since Jesse reacted yesterday, the etopophos would have to run over 2 hours. While it was running, Jesse ate 2 bowls of cereal, drank a CapriSun, and a fruit cup. I am hoping it all stays down. Around 2pm, the etopophos finished. Since we had 8 minutes before the mesna could be infused, we had to heprin and clamp Jesse’s line.

After waiting 8 minutes, the nurse started the mesna. Mesna is to help protect Jesse’s bladder from the ifosphomide. A few minutes in Jesse began to cough and complain of throat itching, She then complained of having trouble breathing. The nurse immediately started oxygen and handed Jesse a mask. Jesse began to look a little freaked out by it. I stayed calm to keep her from freaking out more, which she kept lookig to me for my reaction. If I had reacted badly, then I am sure things would have gone worse. Funny that five minutes before she was laughing.

The nurse called the resident in to get him to look at Jesse since she was having trouble breathing. He looked at Jesse and asked her to move the oxygen mask away for a second. Jesse’s saturation level drop to 87. He then called the fellow to come take a look. They talked back and forth, decided it was the etopophos maybe and to give her benedryl.

Jesse need to go to the bathroom. While she was up, she started coughing. I called the nurse, she called the doctors, and they all came back to evaluate her. They then decided to give Jesse an albutriol treatment. Jesse kept saying to me that she never had to have oxygen to help her breath before. When she talked about it, she began to get a panicked look in her eye. I told her this is what can happen, but we were here to get help. And they did a good job keeping her safe.

The respiratory nurses arrived around 4 to give Jesse the treatment. At first she was really nervous to take the treatment, but they were able to show her how easy it was. The doctors stopped back in to see how things were going. Jesse commented that she felt much better. After they left, Jesse got up to go the bathroom. She complained of weakness and shook uncontrollably for 30 seconds. The nurse mentioned this can happen with the albutriol.

At 5pm, the nurse started the antibody. Everything has been delayed today because of the respiratory scare Jesse had. I am not sure if the ifosphomide has caused her nausea that she began feeling or the thought of the antibody. The antibody will finish around 9pm tonight. She has now decided to lay in the bed and listen to Scooby-Doo.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *