Day Three..

Hubby reporting... Came back to the ward this morning. I sneaked in at 10:30 and dodged the heavies at the ward's reception desk (visitng starts at 14:00 officially). I turned the corner into Gail's ward and saw her lying motionless, eyes closed. Then, as if she knew I was there, she opened her eyes looking directly at me. Big smiles! A sigh of relief from me.

She had had two HDIL-2 doses since I left yesterday, one last night and one early this morning... And she's still beaming. It's now 3:30pm, and the nurse is here to give Gail her next dose. "Bring it on!" she said when asked if she felt ready for her fourth consecutive dose; all of which now means I'm going to witness Gail going through... the 'rigors'! A rigor is an episode of shaking or exaggerated shivering which can occur with a high fever. It happens about two hours after the dose has been administered. Firstly, you start to feel really cold, then your teeth start to chatter, then your entire body goes into convulsions starting with the legs and arms. Gail said that no matter what you do you can't stop shaking - until the Pethidine starts to take effect. Within 20 minutes, it's all under control; then sleep takes over...

I'm looking at the bag containing the HDIL-2, hanging from the drip feed. It's only 45ml of fluid! Now, I thought it was going to be loads more than that; why? Because of another of the side effects that was described to us... "Fluid will leak through the veins and into the body making you bloat out". Apparently, you can put on loads of weight from the amount of fluid you take onboard.

You see, the HD bit of HDIL-2 actually means High Dose (not High Definition as was my misconception). So when you think high dose you imagine bucket loads of this fluid being poured in through a funnel, but it isn't like that.

So where is all this excess fluid coming from? It isn't from the HDIL-2. It's the saline solution... That bag (in the background) looks like about a litre's worth. Saline is really important as your fluid levels must be kept up. That's because it helps regulate the blood pressure, which tends to drop suddenly at around the same time as when the rigors set in.

I'm getting quite knowledgable in this treatment ; )

It's now 6:30pm, Gail's had a light tea - leak and potato soup followed by a tuna salad. She still has an appetite. I watch her eat; a jumble of fluid filled pipes and taps dangle from her right arm as she tucks into her food. She's doing really well. She doesn't have that grey hospital look that you'd expect either - she looks flushed, like she's just been out in the sun for half an hour. Earlier, a little while after the rigors had died down, nurse came around to check on Gail's vital signs, blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate etc. All were settling down nicely. Then she stopped and took a look at Gail and said "you're looking too well to be going through this treatment." A sentiment I echo.