June 5,2018

I thought I would try and catch you up to date. It has been a really tough couple of weeks for me. I was doing so well on the clinical trial and now things are not so great. As you all know, I went into septic shock a month or so ago and ended up in Boston for a week. Blood pressure dropped and organs starting to shut down. They thought that I had pneumonia I was dehydrated and very very sick. My b/p dropped significantly low. They were able to give me high doses of prednizone to slowly rise the blood pressure. Had every test in the book down they found nothing other than a rash on my chest. Determined that this was from my clinical trial. Also, they found that my adrenal glad was not working which would lower the blood pressure. Went home, they reduced my dose of pills that I took daily for the trial and things were going well.

Last Thursday I started to get the chills and run a low grade fever of 99. I brushed it off until V.N.A. came in that afternoon. B/P extremely low. The nurse called the doctor on call at Mass. General and off I went to Boston. Thank goodness I have such good friends that will just drop everything and take me. Thank you Vanessa and Virene! Got to the emergency room and was admitted to be examined. Chest xray done...negative  blood work done....fine urine checked....fine. They couldn't find anything wrong so they sent me home, HMMMM!

Woke up the next morning with a temp of 100.5. Took two ibuprofen and blew it off. Still felt kinda punky. Went to bed that nigh and woke up  around 1:30 a.m.. Shaking and trembling. Called Steve for help. Temp now 103. Rushed to Emergency Room. B/p 66/44... Back into septic shock. Could not get blood pressure to go up. They tried everything. Finally inserted a line in my juggler vein to get medicine working quickly. I.C.U. for two days and in hospital for one week. All kinds of tests done,,,,found nothing, Still pumped with antibiotics all week long.It was nice that Boston and Concord Hospital conferred back and forth. Thinking clinical trial........This is the chance that I took and I think anyone would try one to fight off their cancer.

WAIT......THERE IS MORE.. Released from hospital last Friday.. So great to be home. Went to bed that night and woke up with an  excruciating headache. Took my b/p but it kept reading "EE" for the systolic (top number) Thought it was broken. Guess I didn't pump it up enough. Took a baby aspirin, put a cold compress on my forehead and went back to bed. Woke up at 6 and knew I needed to get to a doctor. Back to the Emergency Room . Blood Pressure 197/110...was admitted for 2 days to try and regulate my blood pressure. Home now and monitoring it myself.  Trying to remain positive but getting discouraged.

Off to Waltham, Mass tomorrow to drink some gross stuff so they can do an xray of my chest. Boston on Thursday to see my oncologist to go over results and decide what to do next...Will see if this trial has taken more of my tumor. Got some big decisions to make.
Will stay in touch!!!!!! Pray ! Pray! Pray!