Round 1 Clinical Trial Updates – Thursday

I’ll post updates on this blog post if I have anything new to report throughout the day, so check this again for new content if you re-visit the blog.

Morning update… Karen says “I’m alive so far… Not dead yet!” What a wonderful quote to share! At least she said it with a chuckle. She’s moving a little slow this morning, but still doing well in her daily recovery period. Her fever wasn’t quite as high last night (only around 101.5F) and broke after about four hours. This is a big improvement from previous nights, but she still experienced the chills during the fever that seemed just as bad. After her fever broke, and we were more confident she’d keep things down, we were able to give her some Advil to help with sore and aching muscles. For a while last night we thought she’d toss her cookies (actually mac-n-cheese), but she managed to avoid that.

Not sure what we’ll be doing in the next few hours, but I’ll report back later this evening with what we did. I forgot to take any pictures yesterday, but I’ll try to remember today. Other updates from today will be added to this post later. Thanks for checking in on us!

Evening update… Karen didn’t feel quite up to travelling far, so we only managed to walk around a little. There was nothing photo-worthy, sorry! We ate lunch at the 4 Corners Cafe, which seems to be a secret little place to eat down one of the side hallways. There are no signs throughout the hospital advertising it’s existence, and we only found it by noticing a little sign next to the closed door. We asked one of the nurses and learned that it is open to visitors, but most often it’s staff eating there. It was really great! Karen and I both had Philly sandwiches and salads.

The treatment is going about the same tonight. She’s had the chills and a fever, but hasn’t tossed her cookies yet. She just got to sleep a short while ago. I think the chills are the worst for her, because she’s rarely had occasion to feel cold. She almost always feels hot, and is taking the chills poorly. Each night the fever and chills have lasted a little less time, so we’re hopeful that trend continues.