Rituximab Round Four

[drz]

My rheumatologist told me today that some of the early research on RTX is suggesting that people who were treated with RTX before going on CTX are doing better in getting into drug induced remissions and staying in them longer. Has any one else heard this or read about it?

[Brooke]

I haven't heard anything about this. I can ask my doc at Mayo when I go there this Summer. I have only been on Rituxan (was on methotrexate first), no Cytoxin and hopefully never need that.

[Sangye]

Rituximab Round Four: Done.

I feel awful tonight in the usual ways but glad it's over. It's hard to celebrate being done knowing that the next 2 weeks are gonna be hideous and I get to do it all over again in a mere 6 months.... but hey. I'll take it.

[elephant]

Glad its done and over with Sangye, and will be here for you. Have a good night. I sure the Weg dog is out.

[pberggren1]

Hopefully you will do better this six month term Sangye.

[Sangye]

Man, I hope so. This morning I realized it's not really 6 months "off." It's 6 months between the start of each treatment. The treatments leave me non-functioning for 6 weeks each time, so my actual functioning time between treatments is actually 4.5 months (6 weeks less than 6 months). That was a highly unpleasant realization.

Hopefully I won't have complications during those 4.5 months and can recover some strength. His Holiness the Dalai Lama comes here in one month. I'm going to be strong for that.

[vdub]

please don't worry about having this type of reaction to the rtx. It's very unusual. The vast majority of people don't notice much of anything when getting rtx. I'm sure you'll be one of them

I hope you are right, but that doesn't make me feel any better about you. Sooooo many people on this site are going through such trying times....

[Sangye]

Thanks vdub.

[Brooke]

Yay, you are done with this round!! Try and stay as positive as you can and we all hope this round did the trick for you!!

[Sangye]

Thanks, Brooke. I think it'll be easier to be upbeat about it in another 2 weeks. Right now my legs are shaking if I stand long enough to brush my teeth.