ICU Sepsis — help!

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There is a likelihood that we may be sent home with nothing further conventional medicine can offer us.

What are the idealabs products which may be useful to us? For r & d purposes.
 
OP
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Update: neuro wants to use Ritalin to help get my father out of unresponsive state....Would straight caffeine work better? Is ritalin ok short-term? I’m looking through the forum and it seems to be ok temporarily.
 

Rafe

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Is he able to eat?

The most basic support is going to be if he can take nutrition, dense, easy to digest things. If he is going home this is something you can try.

Cancer and infection just use so much energy the most basic problem might be that his acidosis spikes when his glucose reserves are completely exhausted. This sounds so basic.

Supplements won’t have anything to work with if he isn’t taking basic nutrition.

I know this sounds weird. I don’t mean it that way at all. Cachexia & wasting are taken in medicine to be a side-effect of cancer instead of a cause or aggravation of it.

Does he get suddenly worse when he can’t or doesn’t feel like eating for a long period? Were they giving him any supportive nutrition in icu?
 
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"….as the study below demonstrates, overactivation of the enzyme fatty acid synthase (FAS) likely plays a major role in the sepsis pathology. While the study does not mention it, overactive FAS means reduced glucose oxidation as a result of the Randle cycle. This may explain the benefit of thiamine in the thiamine+Vit C+cortisol combo, as thiamine activates the enzyme and improves glucose oxidation. When the scientists administered a FAS inhibitor (C75), the mortality rate in septic animals dramatically decreased. There are several inhibitors of FAS approved by the FDA for other conditions but they all (including C75) have toxic side effects. The least risky of these is probably orlistat and it is available OTC in the US, but even that chemical can cause severe side effects. One of the lesser known effects of aspirin is inhibition of FAS, and as such it may be able to achieve the same benefit without much of the side effects. Combining it with thiamine and niacinamide may further improve the effectiveness against sepsis by improving glucose oxidation and reducing lipolysis respectively.”

 
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There is a likelihood that we may be sent home with nothing further conventional medicine can offer us.

What are the idealabs products which may be useful to us? For r & d purposes.
I called an acquaintance just now, who’s wife has been in and out of the hospital with reoccurring sepsis, to get any insight he has, and he said hers has been caused from kidney stones blocking her urine flow.
 
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So he’s on tube feed - maybe 1800 cal/120g protein... I at least made sure that it was the kind with the main Fat ingredient being MCT oil from coconut and palm (and not canola oil). He is slowly gaining weight from it. Btw, he’s only on tube feed because he is intubated/comatose — 2 weeks ago he was eating on his own.


The sepsis has resolved for now. It keeps flaring up but then they control it.His heart lungs kidneys bowels etc are fine (except during the septic episodes that come up randomly). His oncologist think the septic episodes Have to do with the lymphoma.

The major problem is the brain lymphoma that has come back And he is comatose. I made a mistake earlier when I said He’s on chemotherapy—- it’s immunotherapy—- Imbruvica— Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibtor. They don’t think he is strong enough for chemo anymore.

So the Tumors are in cerebellum and pons— this has caused the apnea which resulted in him being intubated. He is on minimal oxygen and he does well on his breathing trials, and they are trying to see if he’s safe to be extubated.

The chemotherapy Always made the lymphoma go away but we’ve had relapses. Over the past months we have tried a lot of things in addition to chemo for the lymphoma (doxycycline, turmeric, b- vitamins, Vitamin k, olive leaf extract, vitamin d3, magnesium)— my dad naturally ate peat-style diet so that part was easy.

We are now looking at tracheostomy and g-tube in the next couple of days and so if we are sent home I want to try any “alternative” to mainstream medicine.

This has been especially difficult because my dad was fully independent/functional and it was rapid progression that basically incapacitated him. But he’s a fighter, and the first time it went away he worked hard to make a remarkable comeback, even though it was short-lived. I want to give him anything I Can to help reverse the lymphoma. right now topical products are out only option untik he can wake and eat or is put on G-tube and we are trained to prepare meal/feed.

Thank you all for your concern/advice.
 

Rafe

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I looked up some basics. Anyone please check.

Side-effects of the Imbruvica are exactly what sepsis looks like & clinically is sepsis, even if it’s not caused by pathogenic bacteria or virus. @LeeLemonoil was saying that.

You’re right, the ER docs are generalists & are seeing infectious sepsis, the oncologists are seeing the same symptoms as side-effects of imbruvica. So when they test for infectious pathogens they aren’t finding anything.

The lactic acidosis does suggest tumor lysis syndrome as haidut said, but oncologists are going to see that as mostly desirable effect of the Imbruvica b/c of their view that the cancer cells are easier to target when they move into the blood stream.

TLS can be spontaneous & not caused by the treatment. The difference between spontaneous & induced is that with spontaneous there is no high phosphate.

By the time TLS
happens the electrolytes are more than 25% out of range & the Imbruvica treatment will make it hard to bring them back in range b/c it is causing high phosphate.

If they are giving him rasburicase (Elitek) for TLS then he could be high CO2 and have acidosis, even though metabolically those don’t go together. Here is a case study with Elitek causing high co2:


If they are giving him Elitek, then he could develop methemoglobinemia & bilirubinemia. Interestingly, the treatment for methemoglobinemia is methylene blue, but it is risky in an extremely impaired metabolism in cancers. But sometimes offered anyway if there is respiratory failure. Here’s a case study of that:


The diarrhea is a side effect of the imbruvica. But as in the other thread, c. Diff infection from the hospital is opportunistic. It could be both.

If your dad is accustomed to an active life then hyperkalemia by itself could cause the profound fatigue-unconsciousness. The brain lesions as you said are deranging the cns.

Targeting the cancer metabolically would be mainly getting the electrolytes back in balance & supporting energy while sparing the kidneys as much as possible. Imbruvica is given as a long-term treatment, virtually permanent.

Since hyperphosphatemia, lactic acidosis, hyperkalemia, hyponatremia (common with kinase inhibitors), and hypocalcemia can be main problems then the basic, high calcium, high sugar (dextrose & insulin are used clinically to stabilize the heart), low residue diet would help, if your dad can go home & can eat.

Calcium gluconate is used if calcium goes so low it causes a seizure, but it is risky to the kidneys. Same with using sodium bicarbonate to bring down the acidosis.

Supplements that improve oxidative metabolism could be supportive. But not aspirin since he has metabolic acidosis.
 

haidut

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@haidut— which idealabs products do you recommend— oral meds right now won’t work and especially if large doses are needed, topical may be our only route.

I had purchased pyrucet - but am not able to use it right now Bc low food/carb intake.

Sorry, I can't really be making (product) recommendations given the situation. It is very legally risky. I already mentioned some compounds earlier, and baking soda for the lactate can also be tried. You can try asking the doctors to consider giving him RU486, which has lately gathered some very good evidence for several different types of cancer, even terminal cases.
 

aliml

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Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) is associated with opportunistic fungal infections, especially invasive aspergillosis.
 

Rafe

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Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) is associated with opportunistic fungal infections, especially invasive aspergillosis.

“Rasburicase is produced by a genetically modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain. The complementary DNA (cDNA) coding for rasburicase was cloned from a strain of Aspergillus flavus.[1]

I don’t know what that statement means.

That’s the treatment for TLS.

So if imbruvica causes TLS then I guess they are “associated.”
 

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