I know Rituximab treatment has been talked about plenty of times, but thought it still might be useful for me to give an up to date view for anyone due to start Rituximab.

Like a few other on this forum I'm on the Ritazarem trial. I had my first Rtx infusion on Wednesday (June 3rd 2015).

Treatment was due to start at 9am and it actually began not too long after that. Initial problem was trying to get a cannula into my vein. The nurse eventually found a suitable vein and changed the cannula to a smaller size.
I was given some pain killers (just simple paracetamol tablets) and had a bag of methylprednisolone via the drip (1G/1000mg). Anti nausea and antihistamines were also given via IV. The methylprednisolone took an hour and after that a bag a saline solution was used to flush it through, which took a further half hour.
I then started with the Rituximab at a very slow rate. After the first hour I'd only had 25mls. The rate was increased every half hour and I think the RTX, itself, took about 4.5 hours. I finally had another bag of saline to flush it through, which took another half hour and then had to hang around a final half hour to make sure I was ok. So the total time was 0900-1630.

For anyone worried I'd just like to say my experience has been quite positive with RTX. The only VERY slight issue was a slight itchiness behind my ears during infusion. I did feel very sickly at about 10.30pm back home which lasted about an hour and each morning since I've felt slightly sickly (it's now Saturday), but nothing too severe.
All my other issues have been to do with the other drugs used (pred and the anti-histamine/anti-nausea). The anti histamine made me very sleepy and I kept nodding off briefly, which wasn't a bad thing.
Many people seem to feel better when on pred, but I only seem to get the undesired side effects. It's really been messing with my brain and emotional state. I've been switching from a chatty mode (like I've had a few beers) to trying to hold the tears back, to getting really annoyed at the littlest thing. I've been on steroids for about 15 of the last 20 years and have really had enough of them now! I'm now on 60mg a day and know that all the other nasty symptoms such as debilitating cramps will be starting soon. Prior to the RTX on Wednesday I'd been on 10mg/day for the last 10 months and my face was slowly begining to return to normal, now I'm going to be ballooning up again

I'll try to remember to update this thread after each infusion (I am useless and don't get around to writing as often as I feel I should). I'm due another infusion next Wednesday which should be far quicker as I won't need the bag of steroids and the rate that the RTX can be given will be started quicker as I didn't react to it this time. Then I have another dose the following Wednesday. I should have had the fourth infusion the Wednesday after, but I've been allowed to go on holiday to Portugal for a couple of weeks and will have the fourth infusion the Thursday after I return.