November 17, 2013

Alright let's get the gory details out of the way...because I know you all want to hear them. So juicy.

Let's review the quick hits I gave you last blog: Monday was no big deal because I just got vitamins and a shot to boost the white blood cell count and get the immune system up and running for the upcoming hit it would take, starting Tuesday. Tuesday I rolled into the clinic, knowing it would be a tough day. About 9 AM local time, I got the shot of the stuff right into the port.

Here's what we know will happen: the shot will first cause tremors, maybe a half hour after injection, then uncontrollable shaking, tapering after about a half hour, at which point the fever will take hold. The fever will last until about 2 o'clock and then you'll cool off and heat up a bit (aftershocks, if you will) well into the night. Blood pressure is expected to drop as the body fights the "infection", the dead bacteria that is injected to produce these reactions. The reaction (ramping up the immune system into action to fight all kinds of cells and most importantly the cancer cells) is what we need.

Here's what happened: tremors started 10 minutes after the shot, followed by uncontrollable shaking for a solid half hour. After that I was shot. Nausea, vomiting, no speaking, just bundled up in a ball. My blood pressure is low to begin with, and so clearly it didn't appreciate the extra hit down. I started to feel warm, looked outside, and saw white. That's it. Next thing I know, I'm coming out of it, with cold compresses on my head and stomach, still light-headed and somewhat confused. I'm told I hallucinated during the episode, which is cool I guess.

The decision was made to go to the hospital in Tijuana. Think back to the scene from The Godfather where Vito Corleone is in the hospital after getting shot while picking up oranges...just like that. No real machines, nothing. After spending, or should I say surviving, a night there, my blood pressure was still floundering after having cruised down to 60/30 at the clinic. I made the decision to bounce back across the border to recoup; I'm glad I did. We switched drugs to bump up blood pressure and regulate heart rate, which was high, and I made a comeback. Finally feeling just about normal today, and you know what that means.............I'm heading back tomorrow.

We'll make tweaks: less dosage, and not through the port. No need to send the body into shock again. All we need to do is illicit a bit of the response I got on Tuesday, not nearly the whole thing. So let's go ahead and do that. No more near death experiences would be coolish. Hope the next update is just as spectacular and not nearly as long - just wanted to take you all through the ride that was this past week.

To an uneventful week #2!