I had my first Rituxan infusion on Friday. What a long day. We left home at 4:30 am for the trek to MERSI. My appointment was at 8:30. We arrived in the parking garage at 8:00, so it was great timing. We met my infusion nurse, Heather, in the elevator on our way up.
Once I checked in, they started my IV. When the nurse was starting my IV, my vein was literally gushing blood. She got that under control, and it was time to pick a chair. Since I was a day long infusion, they told me I had first pick-lucky me. I chose the window seat. After sitting down and opening a magazine, I realized that having an IV in the bend of your right arm when you are right-handed might not be the best idea. The nurse had instructed me not to bend my arm due to the catheter. It isn't easy to not bend your arm!
The first step was to run a bag of saline through-since Rituxan is considered high risk, they like to hydrate you really well with the first infusion. They also pre-medicated me with Tylenol & Zyrtec. it took about an hour for the bag of saline, then they started the Rituxan. They start the Rituxan really slow, so they can see how your body reacts to it. The nurse checked my blood pressure & heart rate every thirty minutes. After about an hour, the nurse noticed that my blood pressure was dropping. I felt fine, so she continued to monitor me. Well, it kept dropping-it got down to 90/50. Then, my heart rate started rising. She told me I would need additional fluids at that point, which I was nervous about due to my history of cardiomyopathy. The fluids didn't seem to help. I still felt fine-just really cold and tired. She had Dr. Foster's wife, a Nurse Practitioner, check my vitals. She decided to cut back on the fluids and slow the medication down. Gradually, my blood pressure went up, although it still ran low, and my heart rate went down some.
I slept a lot during the day. Anand got us lunch, and he sat beside me all day.
Finally, at 4:30 pm, the infusion was complete! Heather took my IV out, and at that point I was full of fluid. I had received about 4-5 bags of saline And was puffy. I went to the bathroom (for what felt like the 100th time of the day), and noticed the cotton & band-aid on my arm was saturated with blood-my vein was at it again. She got the bleeding stopped, and we headed out. Anand got the car while I waited at the bottom of the parking garage, as I wa too weak for stairs. We stopped 3 times on the way home for my bathroom breaks, and finally arrived home at 9:00 pm. I went directly to bed.
I had been really worried about the fluid, but by Saturday, a lot of it was gone. Today, I am not puffy at all-the fluid is gone. Thank goodness! I slept pretty much all day Saturday. Yesterday, I slept a lot, and woke up with some nausea. Dr. Foster had prescribed me some Zofran, so I finally took one in the afternoon. It definitely helped. By evening, I felt much better-just tired. This morning, I woke up with some nausea & a headache. I took some Tylenol and am about to take a Zofran now. I am napping a lot, but I guess it could be worse.
So, one down and seven (weekly anyway) to go.
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