IL-2 and water question

Hi Karen,

Dave is doing IL-2 right now.  I brought one case of water, and that has been enough so far.  He is mostly drinking the water out of the pitcher, more for the ice cubes than anything else.

Jane was spot on about the list – I forgot the heating pad, but the hospital had one here for him to use.  I bought both Sarna and Aveeno for the rash, but he doesn't have one yet.  Not sure if that is after we get home or not –  he also did not get nausea/or diarrhea.  The fever, chills, rigors, body aches – general "I think I got hit by a bus" symptoms, he did get.  He has also been a delayed responder, whereas the side effects don't hit him until 3-4 hours after, and last through the next scheduled dose.  His bp is good, but heart rate is pretty high (150s), so his schedule is 10 and 10 instead of 2 – 10 – 6. 

Best of luck next week, and if you have any questions, you can email me.

Maria

Hi Karen,

Dave is doing IL-2 right now.  I brought one case of water, and that has been enough so far.  He is mostly drinking the water out of the pitcher, more for the ice cubes than anything else.

Jane was spot on about the list – I forgot the heating pad, but the hospital had one here for him to use.  I bought both Sarna and Aveeno for the rash, but he doesn't have one yet.  Not sure if that is after we get home or not –  he also did not get nausea/or diarrhea.  The fever, chills, rigors, body aches – general "I think I got hit by a bus" symptoms, he did get.  He has also been a delayed responder, whereas the side effects don't hit him until 3-4 hours after, and last through the next scheduled dose.  His bp is good, but heart rate is pretty high (150s), so his schedule is 10 and 10 instead of 2 – 10 – 6. 

Best of luck next week, and if you have any questions, you can email me.

Maria

Karen, I definitely didn't drink that much water (9 bottles a day) for IL-2.

But IL-2 definitely affected my taste. In my case, I didn't like drinking out of plastic, taste-wise, especially soft plastic. So I brought in bottled water — either in glass bottles (which I managed not to knock over or drop) or hard plastic. Much more to my liking than the soft-plastic-bottled and tap water the hospital was giving me.

So I brought in some, just not that many.

Good luck if you do the IL-2!

-Kyle

Karen, I definitely didn't drink that much water (9 bottles a day) for IL-2.

But IL-2 definitely affected my taste. In my case, I didn't like drinking out of plastic, taste-wise, especially soft plastic. So I brought in bottled water — either in glass bottles (which I managed not to knock over or drop) or hard plastic. Much more to my liking than the soft-plastic-bottled and tap water the hospital was giving me.

So I brought in some, just not that many.

Good luck if you do the IL-2!

-Kyle

Karen, IL-2 tends to shut down the kidneys while in the hospital.  Ones Creatinine levels will rise.

Here is a good article on il-2:

http://cancerguide.org/rcc_il2hd.html

and one on creatinine: http://www.medicinenet.com/creatinine_blood_test/article.htm

Why is it important to check blood creatinine levels?

The kidneys maintain the blood creatinine in a normal range. Creatinine has been found to be a fairly reliable indicator of kidney function.

As the kidneys become impaired for any reason, the creatinine level in the blood will rise due to poor clearance by the kidneys. Abnormally high levels of creatinine thus warn of possible malfunction or failure of the kidneys. It is for this reason that standard blood tests routinely check the amount of creatinine in the blood. A more precise measure of the kidney function can be estimated by calculating how much creatinine is cleared from the body by the kidneys and it is referred to creatinine clearance.

******************************************

Drinking extra fluid helps flush the kidneys.  When Creatinine levels rise too high during il-2 administration they will skip giving bags of il-2 until the levels drop.  They will monitor the amount of urine one produces.  Keep it up.  That was one of my problems, not enough pee !  I learned that one needs to drink at a steady rate, not try to catchup all at once, but keep the fluid level up. 

   DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE WATER WEIGHT GAIN.  One normally gains between 20 and 30 lbs of water weight during the five days of il-2 administration.  Just make sure that you are given at least a 3 to 4 day supply of diuretics to have at home upon your return home.  The water weight will be gone in about 4 days.  (My 28 lb gain was!)

If you have a notebook computer, the hospital probably has free wi-fi.  I used to be online while receiving the il-2.  (Think I was the first MPIP'er to be doing this during the treatment.)   It helped keep me occupied!  The DVD player in it also let me control what music I listened to and what movies I watched (when awake).  Nothing made the food taste good after the first several days, but the taste buds re-awakened about Wednesday after getting out of the hospital on Saturday.

Remember DON'T WAIT when getting cold feet or chest after the bags or at the first sign of nausea. A quick response at getting the nurses in with the appropriate meds does wonders while delay causes much discomfort. (Don't ask how I know!)

Feel free to email or call me anytime you feel a need to talk. (tjellis@erols.com)

Pulling for you, Gal! Do it to it!

Karen, IL-2 tends to shut down the kidneys while in the hospital.  Ones Creatinine levels will rise.

Here is a good article on il-2:

http://cancerguide.org/rcc_il2hd.html

and one on creatinine: http://www.medicinenet.com/creatinine_blood_test/article.htm

Why is it important to check blood creatinine levels?

The kidneys maintain the blood creatinine in a normal range. Creatinine has been found to be a fairly reliable indicator of kidney function.

As the kidneys become impaired for any reason, the creatinine level in the blood will rise due to poor clearance by the kidneys. Abnormally high levels of creatinine thus warn of possible malfunction or failure of the kidneys. It is for this reason that standard blood tests routinely check the amount of creatinine in the blood. A more precise measure of the kidney function can be estimated by calculating how much creatinine is cleared from the body by the kidneys and it is referred to creatinine clearance.

******************************************

Drinking extra fluid helps flush the kidneys.  When Creatinine levels rise too high during il-2 administration they will skip giving bags of il-2 until the levels drop.  They will monitor the amount of urine one produces.  Keep it up.  That was one of my problems, not enough pee !  I learned that one needs to drink at a steady rate, not try to catchup all at once, but keep the fluid level up. 

   DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE WATER WEIGHT GAIN.  One normally gains between 20 and 30 lbs of water weight during the five days of il-2 administration.  Just make sure that you are given at least a 3 to 4 day supply of diuretics to have at home upon your return home.  The water weight will be gone in about 4 days.  (My 28 lb gain was!)

If you have a notebook computer, the hospital probably has free wi-fi.  I used to be online while receiving the il-2.  (Think I was the first MPIP'er to be doing this during the treatment.)   It helped keep me occupied!  The DVD player in it also let me control what music I listened to and what movies I watched (when awake).  Nothing made the food taste good after the first several days, but the taste buds re-awakened about Wednesday after getting out of the hospital on Saturday.

Remember DON'T WAIT when getting cold feet or chest after the bags or at the first sign of nausea. A quick response at getting the nurses in with the appropriate meds does wonders while delay causes much discomfort. (Don't ask how I know!)

Feel free to email or call me anytime you feel a need to talk. (tjellis@erols.com)

Pulling for you, Gal! Do it to it!

I can't answer your questions, but if you go to my website and scroll down to the IL-2 section, I have links to both HeyStan and KimK (as well as Jane) and their IL-2 tips.

http://melanomaresources.info/blogs.html

Janner

I can't answer your questions, but if you go to my website and scroll down to the IL-2 section, I have links to both HeyStan and KimK (as well as Jane) and their IL-2 tips.

http://melanomaresources.info/blogs.html

Janner

Nine bottles might be a bit much, but drink as much water as you can stand.  I got nauseated and could barely force down a few glasses per day – anything that went into my stomach tended to want to make a return trip.  But they make you get up and pee every two or four hours to make sure your kidneys are still working, so water is really important.  Good luck with IL-2; it made a huge difference for me.

PS, You'll probalby be there for an extra day, recovering, so really plan on six days. 

KatyWI

Nine bottles might be a bit much, but drink as much water as you can stand.  I got nauseated and could barely force down a few glasses per day – anything that went into my stomach tended to want to make a return trip.  But they make you get up and pee every two or four hours to make sure your kidneys are still working, so water is really important.  Good luck with IL-2; it made a huge difference for me.

PS, You'll probalby be there for an extra day, recovering, so really plan on six days. 

KatyWI