Just finished rituxin

[Mel]

Hi everyone,
I hope that you are doing well. I haven't been on the forum for a while. Things have been hard since the summer, as I had a very bad sinus flare. I took imuran and prednisone and then I switched to methotrexate again but finally my doctors decided to give me rituxin. How many people have taken rituxin as part of their treatment plan? How long did it take for it to work? Were you able to lower your steroids quickly or did it take a long time? I appreciate the help!
Mel

[drz]

Were you on prednisone before the flare? If you are on it a short time they can usually taper rather quickly to get you back to lower level once the flare is under control. Many of us have taken Rituxan as part of out GPA treatment as it is usually given for serious flares. Some take it on a maintenance or preventive basis, others only after a big flare. Doctors differ on their philosophy of how to best manage GPA.

[Sangye]

I've had 4 cycles of rtx. It takes 6-8 weeks to start working. Some have said they feel improvements right away. I asked Dr Seo about that and he said it was due to the high dose of pred given with the infusion, not to the rtx itself.

I've never been on higher doses of pred during my rtx treatments so I don't know about tapering.

[mama2005]

After my two rounds of rtx it took about 4 weeks to make any diffrence. I was on high levles of pred for 6months after the rtx and then got to begin the tappering.

[Thakator]

Hi Mel,

After seven months of daily, oral Cytox followed by five months of weekly Meth with a slow pred taper I encountered a hospitalizing flare which then led to ramping up the pred once more and four infusions of Ritux. Didn't take any pred with the infusions since I was already on enough of it. Also, my rheumie doesn't want me to taper any faster than I did the last time even though I've now done the Ritux (especially since I flared before even finishing that one - - as well as flaring near the end of another pred taper a year before).

Had no problems at all with the Rtx, but it's too soon to give you any feedback on how it's doing since I just finished up on the 9th. Hope that it works for you as good as its reputation would lead one to believe that it could. Ron

[Mel]

Thanks for the replies. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Right now I increased my prednisone for a few days but I hope that I can lower it again without any trouble. I found the rituxin treatment to be easy compared to a lot of the other drugs that I have taken. I find prednisone very hard, especially the up and down but it certainly helps manage the pain. Ron, its very funny because I also had my last infusion on the 9th! I guess we will both know very soon. Good luck to you!