Oh, what a night.

Quent had dose 6 at 7.40pm and rigoured two hours later, as usual. Even allowing for the now routine SATS drop, around 4 hours after the interleukin 2 goes in, all was looking good for a reasonable night's sleep - and a "lie in" thanks to the new 12 hourly doses.

The SATS drop was not exactly routine, however. It started at 11.30pm. Exhausted, I did eventually get some sleep at 3.30pm. By that time the room was so full of doctors and equipment, my bed wouldn't fit, so they gave me a side room down the corridor. Not that I slept well, of course, as my mind was still with Quent... (although they were by then declaring him "comfortable").

To cut a long story short, Quent's SATS and blood pressure seemed to be quite low for a long time. The problem is this (in broad layman's - and undoubtedly medically inaccurate -terms ). When your SATS drop, your body focuses on the key organs and "shuts down" other bits - such as the extremities to which the probes are attached. This makes it hard to get reliable readings. In the end, they got round this by doing "blood gases", taken directly from an artery. It's a nasty procedure and one you can't be doing all the time. The results revealed Quent's SATS to be low (90%) but not as bad as some of the measurements had indicated.

By then the Registrar had been called in and the Critical Care anaesthetist had come up. Both felt that the alarming readings could not be reliable or Quent would be looking much worse / bluer. (They would not be compatible with life, was how Frances, my sister-doctor, put it this morning). The doctors manually checked his chest, heartrate, breathing etc. and seemed happy to leave him where he was. If anyone is looking for a business idea, I reckon there's a market for a reliable probe - you could sell it to the fretting relatives, even if the hospitals don't go for it.

Another way to check how the patient is? Ask the patient. Unfortunately, in Quent's case, this is even less reliable than the probe. Quent always says "great", "fine" or, in extreme cases "a bit tired". This morning he could remember very little of last night's episodes and visitors and admits he was away with the fairies.

So where do we stand now?

Quent is due to have another dose around 2pm, although it will be a lower dose on the advice of Prof NOS. (Quent's response, "low doses are for pussies" was thankfully rejected). Some results to do with his kidneys are quite high and there's something not quite right with his bloods. He couldn't pass urine for about 18 hours, although he then delivered a magnificent 820 ml (too much detail, I know, but we're amongst friends). He looks exhausted, old and very swollen - he has put on 10kg since Thursday afternoon - but so, so much better than in the middle of the night. It's amazing how quickly things change, yet how long it seems to last when they're bad.

Quent will probably only get, at most, 2 more doses due to the weight gain. They only let you put on 15% of your body mass (in 5 days) and Quent only has 2 kg more of his allowance to go. He has done extremely well, so I can't say I am disappointed. Our friend Philip-the-success-story, who is with us again, had 10 doses on his first visit and 6 on his second. He's cured and, although you can't draw conclusions on dose vs response, it's still a reassuring benchmark.