Well, it seems I survived round 1 of rituximab and I’m staring down round 2.
Oddly, for me, there’s not much of a story to tell. I spent 8.5hrs at the infusion center, had a nice private room somehow. My partner came along which was very nice and they were wonderful both for support and wrangling the nurses when the infusion pump started beeping for whatever reason. I had one minor reaction very early on, got an extra round of steroids, and it was smooth sailing from there. Read a couple books, listened to music.
I’ve had zero side effects that I’m aware of beyond the after-effects of 250mg total of methylprednisolone. That shit is life altering. I’ve had some positive effects, most of which can be pinned on the steroids. The MTX brain fog and fatigue have cleared which is fucking amazing. Whole new brain.
Yes, I recognize that I started rituximab a month earlier than I previously suggested. The side effects we presume to be caused by MTX began to stack up and I landed in the urgent care with a GI bleed, in early Dec. We decided to cancel plans and rearrange all the things to start rituximab as fast as possible.
The problem is, once the MTX cleared my system, some new shit started in my stomach. We’re still sorting that out and it is not fun. But it seems unrelated to rituximab since it started beforehand, and this post is a ritxuimab update. I’ll post more about the stomach drama as I have knowledge. For now, I’ll just say “fucking ow”.
I go in for round two of rituximab on Jan 20.
(Someone wants to know the cost. We belong to an HMO and they charged us $30. The “cost visit summary” says they’d have preferred to charge us $14k. No, I didn’t mistype. The uninsured cost, according to our insurance, would have run around fourteen thousand dollars per shot. They charge us thirty dollars. Thank you, healthy members of the HMO, for making this happen for me.)