Hiccup

07/26 0450
ANC 7400

We had just started the last drug (Cyclophosphimade) of the VAC treatment when all of a sudden, Alan started getting tremors. Alan's nurse called the charge nurse and the nursing staff sprung into action. The charge nurse was concerned it was a seizure at first, but as they worked on him it looked more like a reaction. They gave him some Benedryl and Tylenol and stopped all the medications (he was also getting Ativan and Mesna). Doc A got there incredibly fast (does he sleep here on the weekends or does he just have access to a teleporter?) but even so Alan's tremors and upset had eased by the time he arrived.

With seizure ruled out, the charge nurse and doc were considering either a reaction to one of the meds (still possible even though he's had all of them without any reaction before) or bacteria hitting his system, possibly from one of his ports. The doc favours the bacteria theory and cultures have been taken from both lines and sent to the lab. His temperature spiked to 102 at one point, so the fever could have caused the shakes. Now we just have to wait and see.

The rational part of my brain was amazed and impressed by the half dozen RNs coming together and working like a well-oiled machine. The emotional part of me was focused on comforting Alan in the middle of a very intense half hour with information, drugs and equipment flying back and forth while they stabilized his condition. I just stayed by Alan with my hand at his back while all this was going on and concentrated on his mood, so the import of all this didn't hit me until things had calmed down and I saw the form that one of the nurses was making notes on - the Critical Event Flowsheet. Until I saw the title of that form, I didn't know enough to be scared, and now that I did, the urgent phase had passed.

Things are quiet now. Alan is quietly playing, though he ought to be asleep, the little stinker! He's had Ativan and Benedryl... his nurse is amazed that not only is he still awake, he was trying to stand several times. He still has a fever though, so hopefully he will fall asleep when the Tylenol finishes the job on that. Unfortunately, this means we're in the hospital for at least another day, more if it is another infection. Stay tuned.