August 16, 2013 - Third Infusion

Talk about uneventful - and that's a GREAT thing!

The appointment for infusion number three of four was at 9:00 AM; by 9:30, I was settled into the recliner and the Benadryl was a-flowin'.  About 15 minutes later the Rituxan was started.



The beautiful, full-of-love-and-hugs Sister quilt.

This infusion was the first since I received the treasured Sisters quilt earlier in the week, and I couldn't wait to put it into action.  How cozy and toasty it was!  The pink flannel backing made it  so nice and warm, but its real power came from all the love and hugs that are pieced into it.  There is a very real healing energy in that quilt, and I'm so blessed to be its current recipient.

I put my earphones in, again pulled up some wonderfully soothing meditation music, and let the cocktail hour begin.

I feel asleep fast, and only marginally woke up every 30 minutes when BP and temp were taken.  Three hours later, the Rituxan bag was empty and I was on my way.  No reactions, no problems - YES!!!

After running a couple of quick errands, I went home and straight to the front bedroom for an extension of that little nap I took in the recliner.  I had hung two posters of my happy place - beautiful beaches in the Maldives that I will get to someday - and have now taken to calling this my "healing room."  When I'm snuggled in the bed having a delicious post-infusion nap, cuddled up to my dogs and surrounded by my books and travel tchochkes and the fabulous light coming through the windows, I feel like the cancer cells are just simply evanescing out of my body.

Piper loves the healing room, too.

Piper, can you scoot over so mommy can lie down?  Piper?  Hellllooooooo?

 

I hang the wristband from each infusion on  one of the 
happy place posters, as a reminder that life's short and if you
want something, ya gotta do it - like going to the Maldives!
YOLO, ya know?

I see Dr. Hampshire the Awesome Oncologist next Friday prior to infusion 4 of 4, and we'll decide how to proceed from there.  Common protocol for Rituxan alone is to have a 4-week infusion every six months for two years - but it can also be done as a single 4-week infusion to shrink naughty nodes.  Since it takes several weeks after the last infusion for all of the Rituxan to have done its job, I'm assuming that I'll have another CT scan in a couple of months and we'll go from there.  Since this cancer thing is Stage IV and in my bone marrow, he may want to do the two-year course, but since I don't know at this point, I ain't even gonna worry about it.

Whatever the result of the upcoming visit with Dr. Hampshire, I DO know that, with the exception of the initial bad reaction during infusion number one, my body does really well on Rituxan.  Since about week 2 I've had what's called the "Rituxan cough" - an annoying cough that's worse in the morning, like when you have a cold - and occasional fatigue and minor flu-like symptoms, none of which have impacted my life very much at all.

And that's exactly how I want it!