Rituxen Treatment 1

Thursday May 10, 2018

Time for some chemo at the Logan Regional Infusion Lab.  10:00 am!  I get there and sure enough all the nurses were noticing me and giving me the "glad to see you NOT glad to see you" greeting.  They are all still there!  All the nurses that gave me pints and pints of blood products.  

This time I am led to a chair out in the open.  I used to get a room.  It was odd.  They were able to pull the curtains around it.  I was given 25mg of Benadryl and some Tylenol.  These are the regular pre-meds for Rituxen. 

Let's tell a story about Rituxen.  Once upon a time I had Rituxen for the first time. Once upon a time it gave me major convulsions.  During this first treatment I had the reaction that they always warn about.  Nobody every gets it that bad.  Once again, way to be special Amy! 

Most reactions to these medicine don't happen. Even when they do there are not severe.  Go big or go home!  So the last time I had this I had the big reaction.  When I was talking to Julie during my education class I told her about my reaction last time.  "Wow... You've had the full on convulsions, we've never seen that here".  She told me to make sure the nurse new that so they could be prepared.  The nurse even called Dr. S ahead of time so that she would know what he wanted to do.  He said let's just wait and see. 

We were hoping that since my body reacted the first time and did better every time after, that we would be good now.  BUT I just got a stem cell transplant that resets the immune system.  My body most likely would not remember this foreign protein in my body and attack.  Did I mention that this drug is made with Mouse Protein.  Sounds yummy doesn't it!

So we wait for the Benadryl to kick in and it does.  I was plastered.  It hit me like a ton of bricks!  Once that is in the system the Rituxen drip starts.  I went for 30 minutes on the slowest drip.  I am scheduled for 7 hours in the lab because this is going to be a slow process.  They are just trying to slowly introduce the proteins to my body.  SO after 30 minutes they ramp it up a notch.  I will stay at this rate for about an hour.  IF I MAKE IT THAT LONG.  Bwa ha ha! 

So she leaves me behind my curtain to fall back into my Benadryl induced coma.  All of the sudden my throat starts to itch.  Then it started to burn.  Then it started to swell up.  I've been having some allergy problems lately because of our lovely dry spring and I didn't think too much of it.  I just kept sipping some water.  But then it got really bad.  

THEN my lip started to twitch.  THEN I remember that this is one of the first signs.  In my head I was trying to remember if this is what happened last time.  I started to get really agitated.  Just squirming around in my chair. I was getting really uncomfortable fast!  I hit the nurses button and Jen was with another patient so Mitzy came over.  "What's going on?"  I told her something's not right.  And then BAMB convulsions.  They started off small.  I was under a pile of blankets.  This drug causes mild flu like symptoms in most people.  So the chill before the burn.  

She couldn't really see the spasms at first. The CNA came over with more warm blankets thinking it was the mild chills version of the reactions.  Then they got worse!  "Oh I see them now".  She had to shut off the drip.  Jen gets over there and she goes to call Dr. S.  "She's having the big reaction like before what do you want us to do?"  I got 50 mg of Benadryl on top of the 25 mg I already had in my system.  It took a long 30 minutes for the convulsions to stop.  I'll be honest it made me cry.  It is a very uncomfortable process.  My body was automatically trying to counteract the involuntary spasms in my muscles. It hurt. So I would clench up every time it happened.  And they were everywhere.  The worst ones were up in my right shoulder chest area.  Right where the port was.  That actually makes sense.  They all work there way down to my legs. So everything was convulsing all at once.  

They had to wait for the Benadryl to do it's thing.  I had one of the CNA's sit in a chair and say she is there to sit with me, while Jen and Mitzy go take care of the other patients.  They closed the curtains so no one could see me convulsing and she had it open just enough so she could see me.  She said, "don't feel uncomfortable I'm just going to sit here and stare at you"!  I laughed.  That was the least of my worries. 

After the long process of waiting for my body to stop involuntarily twitching we got the Rituxen going again.  With that much Benadryl in me nothing would bother me now!  I was able to finish the last 6 hours of treatment with out anymore complications.  Well except for being able to be awake.  I was incoherent.   Even my speech was slurred. LOL!  I slept really good.

Luckily the Benadryl wore off before I had to leave.  I kept noticing that they asked the other patients who was picking them up.  Or orderlies were coming to take them downstairs for their ride.  I was starting to panic.  I drove myself and I would be driving myself home.

Side Note:  When Heidi was there to pick me up from my port placement surgery the nurse was going over my follow up care.  The nurse asked her if she would be the adult taking care of me for the 24 hours post op.  She said no.  Then the nurse asked if I would have someone with me.  I said uhhh....yes.  She asked who.  I told her my daughter.  "Do you feel your daughter is adult enough to provide the adult care?"  Uhhhh....yes.
I gave Heidi the bug eyes and she knew to just go along.  I can't always have people with me! Dang it!

So luckily I wasn't one of the patients they even bothered asking.  I just ran away after they were done with me. RUN AWAY!!!!! LOL!

Even with 7 hours of a Benadryl induced coma I slept REAL good that night!

That's the end of my super fun week.  I really hope things can mellow out for awhile now that everything has been situated.  I don't even want to bother with the mad scientists down at LDS hospital for a while.