Day 4 and strong as Steel

Susan made it through her 6th round of IL-2 (11 am). She is amazing!  Her skin has taken a bit of a hit but a new medication (new to Susan) was introduced to her (Atarax) and it makes a huge difference in making her skin condition more tolerable.  In addition to working hard with IL-2, she had her second hypnotherapy session at 11 am today and then requested a meeting with the pharma supervisor to try to solve the problems with drug delivery and other needed improvements here at Rush.  (She never rests...).   Dr. Kaufman is extremely proud of Susan and stated that she is an excellent patient and he is happy with her results.  (personally I think he is really amazed that she has made it through 6 rounds of IL-2 and is still requesting more!)  The nurses here are wonderful, dilegent,disaplined and really interested in Susan.  She is the first patient here that is in IL-2 treatment (in 6 years) so she is training them well. The residents are engaged and active as well (and cute).  While Susan is dealing with a few issues of low white blood cell count, low platelets and at times, low blood pressure, Dr. Kaufman will meet with Susan later this evening to discuss the possibility of a 7th round.  It probably wont be administered until midnight or later so we will keep you posted.  If not, Dr. Kaufman said that 4-6 rounds would be excellent and we are there!  Susan will be home, earliest Friday afternoon, latest Saturday evening.  We will keep you posted.  Thanks for all your wonderful thoughts and prayers...Debbie Hepburn