Had my first of 4 Rituxan treatments yesterday. It went pretty good and only lasted 5 hours rather than the 6-8 that I prepared for.
We had to be there at 7:30, which was crazy since we had to leave the house around 6:30…LOL…neither of us not the best morning people. They started first with Tylenol and Benadryl and then a 30 minute wait before they started the IV. Interesting fact about Rituxan, it has human and mouse DNA. 🙂 I suppose my cheese intake will increase!! Hopefully next time I see Caley and Darcee’s cats that they do not try to chase me!! As it always does, Benadryl does make me tired so conversation was limited…guess you could say I was quite as a mouse!! Ok…enough mouse stuff!! Jackie came and sat with us too and she and David went to the cafeteria and had breakfast.
So they start the IV drip slowly and only increase it at 30 minute intervals if there are not any adverse side effects. About half way through both Dr. Chen and Shelby stopped in to say hi. It was great for all of us to visit with them and nice that Jackie and David could meet Shelby. Jackie said it had probably been close to 20 years since seeing Dr. Chen, but still looks the same. Dr. Chen said that the Rituxan will probably make me very tired so need to take it easy over the weekend.
About 11:30 I did start to get a headache…maybe the medicine or maybe I did not drink enough water the last few days, although I tried to be aware of trying to drink more. I asked the nurse if I could have Tylenol and she said no because I already had some earlier. Once we were done and the nurse left the room, I pulled Tylenol out of my purse and took some….shhhhh…don’t tell!! I did not want to wait another hour when we got home to take them.
The next 3 treatments will be by injection, the insurance approved the injection option vs the infusion option which is really nice. I will still be there maybe an hour because I believe they still do the Tylenol and Benadryl and then wait and do the injection and then wait again to make sure no reactions. So not the 5 hours, just an hour or so.
Last night I was so tired and started to get another headache. Tylenol or ibuprofen helps with the headache, but I could not fit off being so tired. Went to bed about 7:30 and fell sound asleep…did not even do any reading. This morning, I have slight body aches, like you have when getting the flu, but took Tylenol right away. Definitely tired. But really the side effects are not anything compared to when I had chemo. Being over tired, body aches and headache are easy to address without extra pain meds or anything other than simple Tylenol, which is good. It is such a strange sensation, just sitting and I want to nod off to sleep….I swear I could fall asleep even standing up!!
Did get good news from the foot surgeon on Wednesday. X-Rays look good and I can now start putting weight on it. I can start walking in it, but still need to use the walker. I will need to keep the boot on until I go back to see the doctor on July 3rd. So that is progress and good news!!
We still have not gone to stay at Big Lake. We have gone there a couple of times so David can mow the lawn and meet with a couple of people there. Since I will have PT on Tuesdays and Rituxan on Thursdays, not sure it makes sense to go up there during the week. Maybe we can go up on Thursdays and come back to Blaine on Mondays at some point. But Big Lake has so many steps and limited hand rails, the stairs are still a concern. We will probably try getting me downstairs here in Blaine to see how that goes. I hang on to the handrail with both hands and then just slowly go down the steps. If this seems to go well, I think David would feel better about going to Big Lake. It is really nice in Blaine, but I do really miss sitting outside at Big Lake, where it is quiet and I can maybe see the mom deer and babies while I sit there and read. So I do miss that aspect, but going back and forth between Big Lake and Blaine can be complicated with making sure we have food in both places and whether or not we transport out computers, etc. David does a lot of work for Carefree Big Lake so needs access to his computer more than me. I do the monthly newsletter but can plan around the publications dates for that.
Big Lake will also be hard at first not having Max with us. I know his stuff is still out in the open there, including all of his balls that he would love to play with. So the initial look inside will be hard. I will also missing walking with him. Once I can walk more like a somewhat normal person, I do plan to start walking as if I still have to walk with him. Considering I have not done the at least twice a day walking with him since December, I really need to get back into the routine. I did warn my Blaine neighbors that they might see me talking as I walk, and not to be concerned because I am just talking to Max since I always did that when we walked. :-). Hopefully no calls to the police with a code 5-1-5-0….LOL….just crazy me talking to my invisible dog. Maybe I should get one of the leashes where it looks like you have an invisible dog when I first start walking. But that will be just another step towards healing on the loss of Max.
One of my co-workers that I had at Beckman lost his little Shih Tzu, Shaylee, this week. She was actually his mom’s dog, but when she passed away he and his wife took Shaylee to care for her. When we worked together we would always talk about Max and Shaylee, since they were close to the same age. His mother adored Shaylee, and often dressed her up in doggie clothes. I only put sweaters on Max, but thought it was cute that Shaylee had her own little closet. I told my friend that now Max and Shaylee can play together both pain free.
Just finished a good book last week…The Book of Lost Names. It was really good…a fictional historical novel I guess I would say.
Hopefully everyone has a great weekend. I will probably be napping. 🙂
Take care!!
Dandy Ventures 