Post-infusion symptoms emerge

I had high hopes that the infusion, done slowly, over two days, along with the ibuprofen, would alleviate most or all of the symptoms I have experienced previously. Thursday and Friday I felt rather well. Today, Saturday, I have had a fever, cough, chills and flushing in my face. I have treated them with Tylenol and Benadryl. I read somewhere on the internet that ibuprofen reduces the effectiveness of my cardiac arrhythmia medications. Sure enough, I awoke this morning with a rough and irregular heartbeat. I will decline the ibuprofen until Monday, when I can consult with my professionals.

Never a dull moment!

I will endure whatever it takes to get to remission.

On a somewhat humorous note, my weight has gone up alarmingly! Before we went to Cape Cod, I weighed 158. Yesterday morning, I weighed 174.5! Dr. Hema suggests that the infusions are piped in with saline solution and that after an alarming number of visits to the bathroom to evacuate the excess, I will be back to normal; that is, scrawny. Oh, well, it was fun for a while!

Back in the recliner again...

Out where a friend is a friend
Where the lymphoma guys feed
On the lowly rituxan weed
Back in the recliner again

I am finishing up yesterdays infusion. Nurse P expects it to take until 3:30pm or so. I took the ibuprofen last evening, as recommended by Dr. Infekto, and I feel really very well. I have high hopes!

As you may know, I am a cardiac arrhythmia patient and take medication to regulate my heartbeat. As a consequence, my pulse and blood pressure are generally a bit lower than most humans, at least the living ones. The nurses were indeed impressed with this reading, 84/42!

Back home

As predicted, infusing the rituxan slowly enough to not trigger severe side effects, and cause a minor panic amongst the medical staff, did not allow the entire dose to be given by 5:00pm. Therefor, we must return tomorrow for the remainder. It'a bummer, but by this time tomorrow, I will have three infusions out of four under my belt...well, under my skin! I will again blog from the recliner.

The only great news is that we passed by many high calory, high carbohydrate, grease-ball retaurants on the way home. We stopped at one of my favorites and I stocked up on all the calories I could manage.

This morning's weight: An encouraging 164!

Treatment room II

About 12:00pm, I experienced a beet-red face and extreme anxiety. I also felt that I could be nauseated if I just let myself think about it. Of course, if you try not to think about something, that's all you can think about, so off I went to the restroom, dragging my pump behind me. I was not sick.

Nurses, physician's assistants and Dr. Hema appeared just about instantly. They stopped the rituxan and started a medication to counteract nausea. After thirty minutes or so, when I was feeling much better, they restarted the rituxan at a very slow flow rate. They now seem to think that I will not be able to get the entire dose of rituxan infused today, since it is being administered so slowly, so that I will have to come back tomorrow. After all, these people have lives, spouses, children, etc. and like to go home at a decent hour.

I am hooked to a blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter (see photo, used to check oxygen saturation in the blood) all the time. My vital signs are checked frequently. So far, they are fine.

In the treatment room

Dr. Hema was pleased with the report from Dr. Infekto and we are going ahead with rituxan treatment #3 of 4. He expressed admiration for my willingness to go through the post-infusion symptoms in order to get the treatments done. I told him that if that's what I have to do to get to hear the "R" word (remission) from him, then I was going to do whatever I had to do. The final treatment will be scheduled in two weeks, after any symptoms have subsided and I am back to full health. I hope that the symptoms will be alleviated by the medication that both doctors recommend.

This is my home for the next eight or so hours. More news later.

Edit: Some things I put in the blog to document my progress for my own needs; you are very welcome to read it, although it may seem obsessive/compulsive to you, it helps me document my progress.

Dr. Hema showed me my blood test result from today's tests. My hemoglobin reading was 10.9. The first blood test he ever gave me was 9. The normal reading is 14-17, with older men tending towards 14. The improvement from 9 to 10.9, almost 2 points closer to normal, suggests good things are happening under the hood! This is a bit of good news that I am thrilled to hear, however slight it may be. I love good news!

Another visit to Big City

I saw the infectious disease specialist, Dr. Infekto, this morning. He took a very thorough history and description of my post-infusion symptoms. He examined me carefully and pronounced that while most patients have few or no post-infusion symptoms, some do. I am just lucky enough to be in the some category. He suggested an over-the-counter medication to try to counteract the flu-like symptoms and said he saw no reason to not proceed with the next two rituxan infusions. He said he would fax his findings to Dr. Hema by the end of the day.

Whew!!! I was afraid he would stop everything while he put me through another battery of tests which would further delay the progress towards, hopefully, remission.

My adorable wife and I celebrated with a big lunch and a movie. We are planning to further celebrate with dinner with friends.

Back from the Cape!

We are back. I feel stronger than when I left and I certainly made a pig of myself at every meal, so I hope I gained some weight.

Our son G and I went on a whale watch and I was lucky enough to get this shot. It is a humpback whale starting a deep dive to feed on the bait fish that thrive in the Stellwagen Bank. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I actually got a bit of sunburn. I am almost starting to look human again.

I have high hopes that my two remaining rituxan treatments will go relatively uneventfully.

Thank you all again for all your well wishes; they help encourage me to fight on, even when I feel terrible.