August 11, 2010 — First Full Dose of Campath. This morning I couldn't eat or drink anything because Donna has ordered a cat scan of my chest. The radiologist saw a very slight lesion on my chest x-ray and as a precaution she ordered the CT scan. A young woman accompanies me to the x-ray room, but I get lost coming back on my own. This place is so enormous! Later in the day, Donna, who seems to be the real boss here, says my lungs are fine. Whew, I can't imagine dealing with anything else while going through this.

Finally, I get my morning meds and call in my breakfast. A cool thing here is that unlike traditional hospitals, you can order food from "room service" anytime from 6:30am to 6:30pm so you can eat whenever you like. They don't seem to bother about how much food you order. The menu includes enough variety to make the food reasonably good. There is a refrigerator near the nurses' station for keeping food and drinks.

As I wait for the nurse to redress my picc-line and bring platelets, my breakfast arrives. After the transfusion, I will have my first full dose of Campath. When Dr. Scheinberg comes in, he says my reaction is "par for the course." Then he adds: "Since you will have ten times more Campath today than yesterday, your reactions should be ten times worse." After scaring me almost to death, he retracts the comment saying the first day with the lower dose is often worse than the second day. He reiterates that reactions subside as the days progress.

It is time to get my first full dose of Campath. A dear friend is here and I fear she will see me having a reaction. I get the rigors again and the nurse brings me Demerol, which knocks me out immediately. A few minutes later I feel nauseated and throw up on poor Steve. Also I am half asleep most of the time my friend is in the room. I know she is upset seeing me in such condition. It probably isn't a great idea to have a visitor (besides your spouse) at your first full dose of Campath.

Later that night, my temperature is 101.4 and my blood pressure is very low. Not one but two nurses are on my case all night, pumping in saline to bring my blood pressure up and checking my vital signs over and over again.