Today I had my 6th treatment, and it went so much better than the previous 5! I'd gone into the infusion center on Monday and spoke to the charge nurse about how the last treatment caused me so many problems, and I didn't think that she would be very helpful as her response was "we can only slow it down if your doctor orders us to". When I walked in today I was dismayed to see that she was my assigned nurse, but she said "don't worry, I know what's going on, we'll take it nice and slow today". She started me at 25 cc/hr, and then increased to 50, then 75, and 100 at 15-minute(?) intervals. She told all of the other nurses to not take me up higher than 100! I don't know how it worked, but I was out of there at 2:30 after going through my usual 24g of IVIG, which is the same time that I get done when they take me to 175. I was much less dopey than normal too, despite having all of the normal premeds. I don't know whether the caffeine that I had early on caused that or whether it was simply that the infusion wasn't as overwhelming as usual. I feel almost normal right now, and I'm excited with hope that it might get easier for me to handle this and go back to work full-time! Here's a little tid-bit that the nurse told me about IVIG. She said that every brand has differences that impact the speed at which it can be safely administered. Some brands are highly concentrated, and therefore have to be administered at a much slower rate; whereas my brand is highly diluted and is generally well-tolerated at higher speeds. I guess when we compare speeds, we should also take concentration into account. I'm not sure where to find that information out but the one that they give me is called Carimune NF, and is the only brand currently available at my infusion center.
Update
Monday, June 7, 2010
I've been on Prednisone for about 6 days now...maybe a little longer, and am having some problems with side-effects. My doctor only gave me 20mg/day for 4 days, 15mg/2 days, 10mg/2 days, and 5 mg for 1 day. I'm about to transition to 10mg starting tomorrow. I feel like I've had too much coffee, feel very shaky, and have been having a lot of trouble sleeping at night. I'm trying to make a point to take extra calcium while I'm on it. The rash is clearing up finally, at least. I saw the dermatologist, and she agreed that it is eczema, but that it was triggered by my infusion a month ago (5/7). I'm having a 4-week break between infusions this time, so hopefully the rash will be gone by the time I have my next one on 6/25. In the meantime I've been avoiding any foods that I'm suspecting that I'm sensitive to, which is making grocery shopping and meal planning pretty awkward for my mom.
Update
Monday, June 7, 2010
I've been on Prednisone for about 6 days now...maybe a little longer, and am having some problems with side-effects. My doctor only gave me 20mg/day for 4 days, 15mg/2 days, 10mg/2 days, and 5 mg for 1 day. I'm about to transition to 10mg starting tomorrow. I feel like I've had too much coffee, feel very shaky, and have been having a lot of trouble sleeping at night. I'm trying to make a point to take extra calcium while I'm on it. The rash is clearing up finally, at least. I saw the dermatologist, and she agreed that it is eczema, but that it was triggered by my infusion a month ago (5/7). I'm having a 4-week break between infusions this time, so hopefully the rash will be gone by the time I have my next one on 6/25. In the meantime I've been avoiding any foods that I'm suspecting that I'm sensitive to, which is making grocery shopping and meal planning pretty awkward for my mom.
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