Reaction to Chemo or is it?

[ivannabanana]

Hi Everyone... sorry not been back of late but i had good reason... Unfortunately my hubby was taken back into hospital after hys first chemo injection at the out patients clinic... He landed in ITU and i have to say it was the worst weekend.... Ill keep this short... He came out in a rash and shivers which we were sort of half expecting but by late eveing his eyes had gone all bloodshot.... i panicked and called the hospital they checked his blood records from that day and said there was no need to be alarmed.... By Sunday morning George ws in pain passing urine so again i called hospital and they asked for hym to to go up there.... Thye kept hym in and discovered his temperture ws at 39 degrees and blood pressure quite low... at thys point they nver actually said how low so i wasnt concerned that much.... as the day went on and more fluids were administered i became a little worried.... when i asked what hys BP was i ws told its very low.... by 10pm i could tell the doctors were getting worried and at one point i took one aside and asked hym outright... he replied yes we are very concerned about hys BP it has dropped drasticially and im considering transferring hym to ITU... i .nearly fell through the floor...I have to say that the staff at the Beatson Oncology centre were fantastic and i was confident that they knew what they were doing....At midnight after several different doctors and examinations with a all sorts of machines they transferred my George to The Western Infirmary which is just across the road from The Beatson...Thankfully... In here the staff again were fantastic, and i felt he was in good hands....Ileft the hosptial at about 1.30am as they said he was stable and i could see from the reading that his BP had gone up from 54/24 to 90/41 and this ws due to the drugs that they were feeding hym through a central line in his neck....I cant thank these guys enough, words dont seem enough... Im glad to say he is back in the Beatson Oncology Centre and more stable although he still has temp of 38.8 but his BP is acceptable.... Doctors say he had no white blood cells at all on addmission and his platelets with non existant, which will explain why when the nurse put the needle in for blood it took a while for the blood to stop oozing out..... it was all very scary and i honestly dont know how i coped but i do believe that Big Man that i pray to each night was looking over us and still does...Is this a sort of normal reaction to chemotherapy or has my George been really unlucky? any advice gladly appreciated.... thanx everyone for replies to mylast thread, it really helped us...cheers everyone, hope everyone feeling good

[dadmo]

ivannabanana:
This is certainly not a normal reaction to chemo, but it's not unheard of. I have seen patients have violent reactions to the administrationn of chemo. Did they say what their plans are for continued treatment? Are they going to administer the same chemo and see if his body accepts it (which does happen with the second infusion) or are they going to try a second line of chemo? Please let us know.

[Vinny]

It's possible it might have been a bleomycin reaction, albeit an extreme one. I believe the standard administration protocol for bleo calls for a very small initial injection (1 mg) to test the patient's reaction. Even in normal does, bleo is supposed to be administered over a long period (10-15 minutes for 15 mg reconsituted in water/saline).

I had severe chills once from the bleo, these are usually prevented by premedicating with benadryl and/or prednisone, followed by administering tylenol and benadryl after the bleo.

Here's a link to more information on bleo and side effects.