Hi everyone. My story: lots of (what I & my GP thought) were URIs since Sept. 2017. Felt really crappy in Apr +wk of joint pain. Doc thought I might have Lupus & made an appt. w/ a Rheum. for May 9. April 30th I coughed up lots of blood (sorry...should have given a grossocity warning) & ended up in the ER May 1st.Someone must have called the Rheum because he appeared a day or 2 later as if conjured & let me know I had an autoimmune problem. (Funny side note: more than 1 doc commented on the rarity of a Rheum. sighting in the hospitalAnyway, he was back a day or 2 later explaining all about PR3 & Wegener's GPA. Had 3 nights of 1000mg solumedrol. Home on May 7 taking 60 mg Pred, 100 mg Immuran & a plan for Rituxan (just got my 3rd dose today). So currently: my giant Pred head is the size of that big weird golf ball thingy at Epcot, can't walk 10/15 feet without hvy breathing, hungry like a grizzly bear coming off a 3 day drunk ALL THE TIME, very little sleep, & the roid rage is getting ridunculous. The other day some Sirius DJ let someone wax poetic about "Last Dance with Mary Jane" for 2 MINUTES & then DIDN'T PLAY IT. I love that song. I fussed at my hubby as if it were his fault & made him change the channel even though I was sitting right there (i'm not proud of that last part). I spend half my time screeching & the other half apologizing (except to my beloved children who continue to leave Crocs in my path which I will eventually trip over & kill myself). So that's me right now...still myself...just a giant headed, straight crazy, Jabba-the-Hut levels of bloat version of me I have several friends right now dealing with medical issues that are not nearly as treatable as GPA so as I pray for them I remind myself to count my blessings & remember it ain't all about me
To get to the question I'll have to give you some (more) boring-arsed background stuff so sorry in advance for that. Basically: in the hospital my serum creatinine was 2.4-2.5 & my GFR was in the low 20s (my lung biopsy showed minimal damage but my kidney biopsy showed min to mod damage). Went to the Neph on Mon. & had crea of 2.9 & GFR of 17 & I hear "worsening kidney func, possible Rituxan fail if this contiues". My lizard brain screams "Rituxan fail! Press the panic button! NOW!!!". So that was Mon. Today saw the Rheum. & he basically said that was crazy talk...Rituxan takes several wks to make a diff & have to be patient & wait & see. So my question is: did anyone with kidney issues have rising serum crea/falling GFR during Rituxan? Did it eventually begin correcting? How long did it take? How long til you started feeling a little better? I'm thankful for any info from folks who've actually gone through this