Showing posts with label Rituxan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rituxan. Show all posts
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Day -6
Day -6 was pretty much the same as day -7. The only difference was the main drug they gave me. Instead of the Rituxan, I was taking the rabbit ATG. So now instead of having my B cells ablated I now have my T cell ablated too. Two letters down, only twenty four left. Well, not quite. Tomorrow I will start the chemo regime for real and that is there to destroy all the white blood cells.
So today was very similar to yesterday. Apart for the main difference that I mentioned above, I had only two smaller difference. First, instead of just having 250mgs of solumedrol, I had 1000mgs. That is an insane amount of steroids to have floating around your system. Oh well I guess I will have to give up my dream of a call up to open the batting for the Australian cricket team as I'm sure that will raise a red flag with any international doping agency around the world. Just so you know, the human body naturally produces 7-10mgs of steroids per day, So I'm only 100 times above normal right now.
The second change is that the Rituxan was run over two hours, the ATG has been run over ten hours so currently, as I started at 2pm I am still having it infused. For any doctors that read this I'm having a hard time figuring out how the drug is derived and its actual mechanism of action. Maybe I'm stupid, maybe (and I hope) it's complicated, so if someone could explain it to me in layman's terms, I'd appreciate it. My cousin is an anaesthesiologist and I have a friend who is a chemist (you know who you are) so I'm sure someone can explain it to me.
Well day -5 should be interesting. I'll let you all know how it goes. Until then, stay well:)
So today was very similar to yesterday. Apart for the main difference that I mentioned above, I had only two smaller difference. First, instead of just having 250mgs of solumedrol, I had 1000mgs. That is an insane amount of steroids to have floating around your system. Oh well I guess I will have to give up my dream of a call up to open the batting for the Australian cricket team as I'm sure that will raise a red flag with any international doping agency around the world. Just so you know, the human body naturally produces 7-10mgs of steroids per day, So I'm only 100 times above normal right now.
The second change is that the Rituxan was run over two hours, the ATG has been run over ten hours so currently, as I started at 2pm I am still having it infused. For any doctors that read this I'm having a hard time figuring out how the drug is derived and its actual mechanism of action. Maybe I'm stupid, maybe (and I hope) it's complicated, so if someone could explain it to me in layman's terms, I'd appreciate it. My cousin is an anaesthesiologist and I have a friend who is a chemist (you know who you are) so I'm sure someone can explain it to me.
Well day -5 should be interesting. I'll let you all know how it goes. Until then, stay well:)
Sleep is over rated
The drugs you are given whilst going through the SCT aren't ever fun, but they are necessary. It seems that they give you a drug to do something and they they give you a drug to counter the side effects of that drug and then they give you a drug to contract the side effects of that drug etc.
What I found was that yesterday they gave me the Rituxan which was the active drug as part of my chemo arrangement. But just in case they gave me a large dose of Solumedrol, a steroid, some tylenol (paracetamol) and benedryl.
What I find is the benedryl makes me really sleepy so just after they have administered that I normally sleep anywhere from two to four hours. After then the sleepy effect of the benedryl has worn off the effects of the steroids kick in and from that point on I can't sleep. Yesterday I was not tired and I tried to sleep at about 10.00pm but to no avail.
Luckily Amy had written me up a sleeping pill so at about midnight I took that and then about 1.00am I finally got to sleep and I woke up around 7.00am with a brief interruption around 5.00am when the nurse came in to check my vitals (and yes I did have a heart beat) and to my surprise I did sleep afterwards.
The thing I find is that hospitals are boring at the best of times. They are even more boring when you're stuck in a cycle of sleeplessness at 2 o'clock in the morning. If I can't get to sleep in about 15 minutes, I will busy myself with a DVD or book or something for an hour or two. If I still can't sleep I'll ask the nurse if I can have something and if I still can't sleep I'll continue to occupy myself with a DVD or something.
The night before my brain surgery I couldn't sleep, probably because of the anxiety after not one but two sleep pills I still couldn't sleep until about 4.00am! They then woke me at 6.00am to prep me for surgery. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, yo just can't sleep. Until next time, stay well:)
What I found was that yesterday they gave me the Rituxan which was the active drug as part of my chemo arrangement. But just in case they gave me a large dose of Solumedrol, a steroid, some tylenol (paracetamol) and benedryl.
What I find is the benedryl makes me really sleepy so just after they have administered that I normally sleep anywhere from two to four hours. After then the sleepy effect of the benedryl has worn off the effects of the steroids kick in and from that point on I can't sleep. Yesterday I was not tired and I tried to sleep at about 10.00pm but to no avail.
Luckily Amy had written me up a sleeping pill so at about midnight I took that and then about 1.00am I finally got to sleep and I woke up around 7.00am with a brief interruption around 5.00am when the nurse came in to check my vitals (and yes I did have a heart beat) and to my surprise I did sleep afterwards.
The thing I find is that hospitals are boring at the best of times. They are even more boring when you're stuck in a cycle of sleeplessness at 2 o'clock in the morning. If I can't get to sleep in about 15 minutes, I will busy myself with a DVD or book or something for an hour or two. If I still can't sleep I'll ask the nurse if I can have something and if I still can't sleep I'll continue to occupy myself with a DVD or something.
The night before my brain surgery I couldn't sleep, probably because of the anxiety after not one but two sleep pills I still couldn't sleep until about 4.00am! They then woke me at 6.00am to prep me for surgery. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, yo just can't sleep. Until next time, stay well:)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Day -7
You know, when I come to hospital I like to hope for the best but expect the worst. So for the last 24 hours I have been trying to stay positive but at the same time I have been trying to steel my mind for any nasty surprises. Fortunately, so far it has been a breeze but it is only my first day and I'm sure that things will get harder as time goes by.
So why was today easier than expected? Well to start with the PICC line catheter was 100 times more comfortable than the central line catheter that I had for the harvest. This will hopefully be a benefit that will remain for the whole two and a half weeks, and I must admit that I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be the case.
The second reason is that I didn't actually start the chemo today. The protocol changes slightly for every patient, but I am not actually going to do any chemo until Thursday or day -5. Today all I had was a dose of rituxan. Rituxan is used to target B cells which are one of the five types of white blood cells or lymphocytes in the blood. They didn't expect any side effects, and none were realised. Well no side effects anyway, but I do think I am out of the woods now. Tomorrow, there is no chemo again and no Rituxan either. Instead I will have rabbit ATG, which is used to target the T cells, another lymphocyte, in a similar way to how Rituxan attacks the B cells.
Another plus is I have a much better room than I had for mobilisation. The best rooms with nicest view are east facing over the lake. My room is north facing, but is probably the second best view and I have two big windows as opposed to one small window. However, the room is slightly smaller, but this doesn't bother me at all. I will get some video for you tomorrow. Until then, stay well:)
So why was today easier than expected? Well to start with the PICC line catheter was 100 times more comfortable than the central line catheter that I had for the harvest. This will hopefully be a benefit that will remain for the whole two and a half weeks, and I must admit that I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be the case.
The second reason is that I didn't actually start the chemo today. The protocol changes slightly for every patient, but I am not actually going to do any chemo until Thursday or day -5. Today all I had was a dose of rituxan. Rituxan is used to target B cells which are one of the five types of white blood cells or lymphocytes in the blood. They didn't expect any side effects, and none were realised. Well no side effects anyway, but I do think I am out of the woods now. Tomorrow, there is no chemo again and no Rituxan either. Instead I will have rabbit ATG, which is used to target the T cells, another lymphocyte, in a similar way to how Rituxan attacks the B cells.
Another plus is I have a much better room than I had for mobilisation. The best rooms with nicest view are east facing over the lake. My room is north facing, but is probably the second best view and I have two big windows as opposed to one small window. However, the room is slightly smaller, but this doesn't bother me at all. I will get some video for you tomorrow. Until then, stay well:)
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