Infusion 4 – Reactions Galore, but Back for More. - The Mike Sessions by Chad Estes

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Infusion 4 – Reactions Galore, but Back for More. - The Mike Sessions Posted: 05 Jun 2012 10:12 AM PDT When I got to the emergency room on Friday I already knew that Mike’s face was swollen up like Will Smith’s in the movie Hitch. Unlike the movie there was nothing funny about the allergic reaction that he had been suffering from for the past 24 hours and that he would suffer from for the next 48. It was hard to tell exactly what he was reacting too. The chemo from the previous session should have been out of his system for almost a week at that point. He hadn’t eaten anything different from his dietary regimen of the past six weeks of treatment. There were no indications that he had been bit or stung by anything, but boy was his body reacting to some toxin in his system. He was irritable with the irritation. I could hear it in his voice on the phone over the weekend. It was very unlike Mike, who was struggling to get any rest or relief. I was pretty convinced that Monday’s scheduled chemo treatment would be set aside. But when I showed up at the hospital on Monday Mike was back to his old, congenial, un-swollen self. Whether the steroids and antihistamines finally kicked in or whether it was his antioxidant vitamins that rallied his body nobody was sure (but everybody had an opinion). “No, this isn’t normal,” the doctor told him. “Yes, it is within the realm of possibilities,” he continued. “We just don’t have any data for that,” he excused. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen again, he finished, giving Mike a couple of prescriptions in case it actually did. It can be frustrating when you meet with the medical experts and they don’t have any more answers for you then when you arrived in their office. At least he was honest. And then Mike moved from the consultation room to infusion room 11. If there was a time to quit, it could have been now. No one, especially those who saw him over the weekend would have blamed him. Instead Mike did another course and instead of being 1/4 finished is now 1/3 of the way complete. He and the other patients I saw in the dozen treatment bays are fighters. They are fighting for their lives, for their health, and for their families. This is a scheduled 12 round bout. Mike may have lost on the score cards in round 3, but he is already way ahead in round 4. P.S. I will be out of town in a couple of weeks for Round 5. If you show up to cheer on Mike from his corner, please take his picture for me and make him laugh. P.P.S. Dress as a Ring Girl.