Day 2 in IL-2 World

Wed, 3:00pm 21% of the 14-dose treatment complete! (Jim here) Mike has begun to show some side effects, as expected, from the interleuken-2. He has fairly major chills, requiring sedation, with each new dose, and has begun to have a slight fever. So far the chills only last about 30 minutes, with the aid of a shot of dilaudid. But other than the shakes--which are definitely significant--he feels okay, and is in typically good Mike-spirits. He is reading Celebrating the Wrath of God, a find from the sale rack of Lisa's store, and rereading Book I of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Dose 3 complete this morning 9:30, dose 4 tonight at 5:30. Between those two--today--is when full-on side effects typically kick in.

The on-call attending physician today was Dr. Hwu, who formerly worked with the National Cancer Institute. That body is where high-dose IL-2 therapy was recently invented/refined; and Dr. Hwu was a member of the team that developed it! So Mike & Lisa were able to talk with him and learn more about this treatment.

Mike was moved today to a nearby ICU pod because of staffing issues--basically, his nurse was very busy with his other patient (they are assigned to patients 2:1), and this pod's nurses were less busy. The real benefit to us all is that this room has (a) a bathroom, and most particularly (b) a shower Lisa can use! God is good.

Lisa is, of course, by Mike's side continually. But she's heeding the nurses' advice to care for the caregiver. She & I have been able to sample the area hospital cuisines, some of which are actually pretty good. She is able to sleep here nightly, and will let me relieve her some.

By the way, Mike's emails you send to the Anderson website, which are printed on yellow paper and delivered to him, are so voluminous I wouldn't be surprised if the nurses just brought him
a printer to the ICU! Your love and concern for Mike & Lisa is wonderful and humbling; keep 'em coming! He loves to hear from each of you.

In His grip,
Jim