Well, I can't exactly say that today was fun or even could be classified as an adventure but it is done. Oh Cordy...I am so glad it is over and you are safe at home. The marvels of modern medicine. It never ceases to amaze me how they can do the things they can do. Please rest and relax...I imagine you will be bruised and tired for a while. Keep us posted. Love and hugs, shel WOW Cordy, sounds like you were put through the ringer. You sure are a brave one letting them start over again after that ordeal! I'm impressed
Now lets hope and pray that this stuff is just what you need to be up and painfree in no time! Hope it works real soon. Keep us posted
Way to hang in there! Sounds pretty traumatic but you did it and I am sure the next one will go much more smoothly! Very proud of you for sticking it out! Love and hugs!
You sound like a real trouper
Hope all goes well [QUOTE=Cordelia]. I guess that's what tough is. Congratulations on being tough enough to survive a disease that keeps tying to kick your ass!! Way to go, Cordy Yeah, Link, it is constantly trying to kick my ass and I constantly refuse to let it. I am just such a stubborn witch.
Witch away, Cordy! Let's hope this latest "potion" works like "magic"! Sorry for that. It was silly, I just couldn't help it.
Okay I have to have a go at it now... Cordy, hope that incident with the reaction was only a "spell" you had. HAR HAR!
I am so glad you got through and hope it works quickly for you!
Oh Cordy, you really are brave! I think if I had a reaction like that, I would be ripping the line right out of my arm! I agree with your friend; CORDY THE BRAVE, from this day forth! I am in a similar situation with the limited treatments. My rheumy is checking on Orencia now to see if it's safe for someone with my odd health issues. She says that Rituxan is the one we have when there is nothing else available. If the Orencia is not possible for me, I think we will be at that point. From what I have read, the reactions are most likely during infusions, and even more so with the very first one. I am so glad the first is over for you. Just get your rest...you can go out and party next weekend
How long did the infusion take? It seems like it would have been quite a while, with the reaction, and changing the speed of the infusion. But better to go more slowly than to rush it through and have something even worse happen. I understand they are always very, very cautious with Rituxan infusions, and I am so glad your team was cautious! Please let us know how things go and how you are feeling these next 2 weeks. Take care, Sweetie, Gentle hugs, Nini
Rituxan is just such a big deal...left home at 6.30am, had to be there at 8.30am. Infusion didn't start till 10am, finished at 5pm, home at 7pm. Big day.
What they do with this drug is put a canula into your hand, hopefully. I am difficult to canulate so they had six tries before they succeeded and in a pretty crappy place on the underside of my left arm.
They give you a pre-med of Prednisone and Claratyne for allergic reactions because this drug is given slowly as it causes anaphalactic shock. So the first fifteen minutes is only a little and then it is upped for the next and then upped half hourly mixed with saline solution, of course. All the while they are doing obs...temp, blood pressure, pulse. Every five minutes and then fifiteen and then 30 mins - what a process.
So I get to the third increase and go into anaphalactic, don't I
One just can't know how one can react to this drugs until one has them...that is very difficult their personal unpredictability.
Thanks, Shelly and yes, I promise I will be resting today but I don't seem to have any after effects which is good, since what happened during the procedure was enough.
I know, Janie, it is such a pain you have to cancel the nightclub...I know you were there with me, girlfriend.
Allycat...thanks for being proud of me. Yesterday is one of the toughest things I have ever done, I am proud of me too for being gutsy enough to face it and get through. One of my friends keeps telling me how tough I am...I just think of it as doing the next thing I have to, to survive.
Love and hugs to you all
One of my friends keeps telling me how tough I am...I just think of it as doing the next thing I have to, to survive.
Love and hugs to you all
And that's why I went on...my options are limited at this stage and I want to give this one a good try. I don't go around saying, 'my options are limited', I don't think that is a good way to talk about it. There are always options as far as I am concerned. I have had a good feeling about Rituxan and so have other people around me so I believe that this is probably my drug. Besides my research shows that this drug has a good success rate. People who have had it have responded well.
Besides, I am pretty tough mentally and for me ripping the line out would have been quitting and I just don't quit, Nini out of pure unadulterated stubbornness if nothing else.
I believe that now Rituxan and I have met and become aquainted, the worst is probably over and I am not afraid to go again in two weeks...bring it on as far as I am concerned.
I arrived at 8am and left at 5pm. This infusion took 7 hours of that time. They say 6 to 8 hours. You have to rest for an hour afterwards and the prep takes about an hour at the beginning. They canualate you, give you premed anti allergy medications, have to wait half an hour.
They are careful with these infusions and you are monitored very closely especially in the first two hours. For the last couple of hours I actually went to sleep because I had had that shot of Phenergan and it knocked me out. When I woke up, the nurse said it was over, we just had to flush some saline through, to get all the drug, then do the hour rest.
Oh, and from what I have heard from the couple of people on here who have had Rituxan, the first time it can take up to three months to kick in, so there can be a wait as it takes a while for your body to respond. But hell, I have just done 2 and a bit years of drugs and waiting...I can wait a bit longer
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