Update Saturday 31 May 2008

Peter has had a very rough 4 days as the chemotherapy drugs have made him extremely nauseous despite all the anti-sickness medications. So just when he had started to eat a few mouthfuls again and was getting his old cheekiness back, he went downhill and hasn't been able to eat.

Yesterday afternoon he took 2 turns for the worst. At 4.15 and then 6.15 pm he propped himself up in bed on one elbow, started to say something and then collapsed out of bed onto his head, and had siezures. In the first one, he hit his head on the bedside cabinet at the temple and scraped his cheek but as he "slid" slowly out he didn't do too much damage. He had what looked to be a fit for about 15 or 20 seconds. He settled down and once back in bed seemed okay, but later complained of feeling short of breath, dizzy and his sight in the left eye was fuzzier than normal.

Later on, I thought he was going to the toilet but as he sat up in bed he just tumbled out onto his forehead straight onto the aluminium leg of the IV stand with his full weight. He went into a seizure and was not responding to speech. While I was only a metre or so away from him on the other side of the bed, I couldn't get to him in time to control the collapses but did get help immediately. The second time was worse - perhaps because of the fall directly onto the IV stand. He had a chicken egg size lump on his forehead within a minute and when he came around he was agitated, aggressive and was not making sense in anything he said, while trying to get out of the room. For around 20 minutes he was trying to escape the room, not making any sense and hitting out at anyone trying to restrain him. I talked to him and reassured him the whole time and finally got him back to bed. The nurses gave him a needle (not sure what was in it but probably some form of tranquiliser). Eventually he calmed down and when his specialist arrived 1/2 hour later it was as if nothing had happened.

So he was being sent for a brain scan last night. I came home to get some sleep and am just about to head back to spend the day with him. I will update the blog again as soon as I know more.