Dear all,

I hope someone has had a similar experience. I had Rituximab in December and over the last two months my symptoms seem to have returned. My consultant said I needed more Rituximab but it might take a few weeks because of funding issues.
I have had cyclo, methotrexate, and have been on prednisolone for nearly two years, when I was told to increase the dosage in May to 20mg having been on 10mg, I became very irritable (pred usually makes me more cheerful!) and very hyper. According to one Dr I saw last week, this is quite common in older peops. I was told not to go over 12.5mg if possible.

I can't manage on that, I'm tired achy and quite breathless at times, so I've been taking 13.5 or 14mg, which helps a bit but not much. I am not on anything else.

A couple of days ago, I began to have more severe pain in my head, muscles and joints and during the night, it became very painful indeed. My temp was 39. I increased the pred to 20mg , but didn't take an antibiotic because I wasn't sure I had an infection. I have gunky stuff coming from my lungs but this has been happening since I got three viral infections one after the other in April. I've had quite a few antibiotics this year, one as recently as a month ago. I had aspergillosis which I had Ambisome for in December.
I started taking doxycycline, I had some as a rescue plan. I felt a bit better today and have been doing stuff, this evening though, I became very shivery and cold and my temp went up to 38.7. I've had similar episodes before but not really since I started treatment. I had forgotten how much it hurts! You can tell me I'm just being a wimp, that's OK!

I used to cough up a lot of blood before but I seldom do now.

Best Wishes

Bloom