What a night!
My husband woke me up at 1:00 am this morning telling me that he was concerned about the severe abdominal cramping he was having. He said that it was in the area of his incision, mid belly-ish, and worse when lying down. We called the on-call doctor at MSK who reviewed his symptoms and said it may be prudent to go to the ER.
He is on day 7, now 8, of HAI FUDR. He describes the pain as being what he feels a few days after disconnect from Folfiri (last round of that was 4/29-5/1), which has happened after both of his two, so far, Folfiri treatments. Thus, we find it odd and worrisome that it was happening at this time in his cycles. I gave him some sodium bicarbonate in case he was having small intestinal gas before we left for the ER.
At the ER, he had bloodwork, adbominal xrays, and an EKG/ECG. Bloodwork shows low hemoglobin again, 2 points lower than last week, same with hematocrit, better MCV, elevated WBC and neutrophils, and low potassium. Cardiac and pancreatic markers were fine. EKG/ECG was normal. Xrays looked good so the doctor wasn't worried about obstruction. The nurse heard gas in his bowels moving around so I think the sodium bicarbonate loosened it up. The cramping went away while we were there.
Here's the distressing part: Before the nurse drew his blood, his BP was 129/81. Awesome for him! Then, she drew five vials and his eyes widened..."I hate needles" etc... He started to feel nauseated, retched, and his BP bottomed out. He also went unconscious for a moment. BP was 87/51. They called "vagaling" and he had "vagaled." Within a half hour to 45 minutes after the blood draw and vasovagal syncope, it went to 112/63, low for him. Since everything was looking okay, he was discharged.
Then we get home. He walked slowly up the stairs, walked to the bathroom, and then fell unconscious again. He came to, after a few seconds, but I was a bit hysterical and called 911. My husband said he was fine, it was just from walking up the stairs.
He drank a sugar-free gatorade and I gave him a potassium tablet.
He went to bed in the bedroom and he is sleeping. I am so worried. I don't think it was normal for him to pass out again. I am calling Dr. Kemeny's office in a couple of hours.