I talked to my doctor yesterday about my infusion rate, and how the last infusion caused me to break out in hives for a week, and she said that they infused me an hour faster than she had asked of them. She said she'd tell them again to slow it down, and I told her about how a person from my support group said she gets it starting at 50 and increasing by 10 every 15 minutes. My doctor said that the infusion center wouldn't tolerate that because they "need the chair for other patients", and that it would take too long that way. Apparently my current rate (that they didn't do the last time) is starting at 50 and increasing by 20 every 15 minutes. I'm toying with the idea of calling to talk to the head nurse and find out when their slowest day tends to be each week, and having them schedule me for that day. I know they start their chemo patients first every day, but they might let me come in even earlier and let me stay as long as I need if it's not such a busy day. I think that way, when I go back to work I might be able to have my infusion on a non-busy day, and if I'm only out 1 day from it, it wouldn't be an issue.
My hands and feet are currently broken-out in a very itchy, scaly rash of small blisters. I believe it's a bad case of eczema, because the last time I had something like this the dermatologist said it was either athletes foot or eczema and she couldn't tell which. The athletes foot medication (even though it was prescription) didn't help at all, but when I used the super-strong eczema cream that she'd given me it cleared up right away. It hasn't been as effective this time, and I think that hand sanitizer has made the hand part worse.
*Note: The hives and eczema breakouts were both caused by the IVIG being administered too fast for my body to tolerate. I had hive breakouts every day for about a month, and it took about 6 weeks for the eczema on my hands and feet to clear up after another visit to the dermatologist.
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