Day minus 4 - seizure

Day -4

Jordan’s Levels Normal Range
Weight 55.6
WBC 3.92 3.84 to 9.84
Hemoglobin 10.0 10.8 to 13.3
Platelet Count 185 175 to 345

Chemo day 4 – Busulfan (last day of Busulfan)

Jordan did pretty well today. She complained early on that she didn’t feel quite right. She felt a little dizzy when she would get up and at one point said she felt a little bit disoriented. Her stomach starting feeling sick this afternoon but she never became sick.

At about 12:30 tonight, Jordan got up to go to the bathroom. We had just settled in for the night after watching a movie. She was coming out of the bathroom and I was laying on my air mattress. I noticed she seemed to be getting closer and closer to the floor. It was hard to see, but there was just enough ambient light that I could see her. All of a sudden she fell to the floor. I jumped up and noticed she was having a seizure. I ran out of her room and there weren’t any nurses at the station. I ran to the other nurses station and found a single nurse entering a patient room. We ran back to Jordan’s room and found her nurse Denelle in the room too. Within about 20 seconds her room was completely filled with hospital staff.

The Busulfan commonly causes patients to have seizures. They give them a medicine called Dilantin to prevent seizures, but Jordan’s level of Dilantin was lower than it should be. They drew blood and determined her level was only 7.1. They gave her an IV injection of Dilantin of 500 mg and this brought up her level to 14.

She had been given 15 of her 16 doses of Busulfan when she had the seizure, so she only had one dose left this night at 3:45 a.m.

I didn’t go to sleep tonight I was so worried that she might have another seizure. Luckily, she did not.