I've responded well so far to my Rituximab treatments, now at 15mg Prednisone and falling by 2.5mg every two weeks. The only symptom that bothers me is my eustachian tube dysfunction. Often when I swallow, my ears "open up" (for lack of a better description) and the sounds of my breathing become really loud and dominant. So then I have to snort air through my nose and that brings the hearing back to normal. Except, it's sometimes too low and I have difficulty hearing well. So then I have to swallow and repeat until hearing is acceptable. As you can imagine, this can be most annoying!
Dr Lebovics said this was due to eustachian tube dysfunction and said I might need to have tubes placed if it gets worse as the prednisone is tapered further. Btw, the problem hasn't changed since I was on high doses of prednisone and may have improved slowly after the Rituximab treatments 3 months back.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any recommendations on what to do? Might tubes help? Oh, and I also have ringing in both ears.
Thanks for any advice, pointers, ...!
Oh, and by the way, Drs Spiera and Lebovics are coauthors on a forthcoming research study that found Rituximab to be a more effective treatment *specifically* for sinus problems related to GPA. A previous study had found that it is at least as effective in inducing remission.
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