Round 4 - Days 3&4 and DONE!

 With two infusions on the first two days, we thought there would be a third, but Mark did not recover so well from the second one. His vitals were actually quite good, and he never needed Neo to control his blood pressure. But...he felt miserable with nausea, muscle pains, itching, and overall weakness. This morning the team came in and decided that he had had enough for this round. One infusion has been dropped with each successive round. 

During the day, Thursday, he perked up considerably. He ate a bit of breakfast and most of his lunch. The nurse had him sit in a chair for about an hour and walk two laps around the floor. He did well, so we are being discharged now. The nurse is currently taking out his internal jugular central line (IJ), and he has to lie still for half an hour. We'll be ready just in time for rush-hour traffic, but that's nothing like going home in an ice storm! 

In six weeks, Mark will have a PET scan to see if the tumor has shrunk or, at least, not grown. Round 5 will be a week or so later, and the final round will be another two or three weeks later. His Interleukin-2 treatments will be completed by mid to late June.  So...almost six months to get through all of it. 

Also, he can't have a Covid-19 vaccine until after the PET scan as the vaccine has been known to enlarge lymph nodes, so that could create a false outcome on the scan. We don't want that. Then, it just depends on when the next two rounds of IL-2 will be scheduled. He may have to wait until he has finished all treatments. That just means we will continue to be extra careful for a little longer. 

We're excited to be going home! 

UPDATE: While Mark was resting after the IJ was removed,  he closed his eyes and saw cool videos playing on a TV on the ceiling. He was amazed at how clear it was, so he opened his eyes to see if it was real. Of course, it wasn't. The nurse was here at the time he was telling me how authentic it looked. She left and came back a few minutes later after talking to Dr. Taylor. That is a sign of late-onset neurotoxicity, so they want to monitor him for another night. Therefore, we aren't going home just yet. He may have some fascinating dreams tonight! 😄