Rhituximab

Hi Dog

Had Retixumab infusion at Addenbrookes last week. After month of feeling rubbish, the day after the infusion I felt just great! No down sides as far as I can tell - have now had 3 infusions

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I had 4 infusions in 4 weeks in August. They pre med you before you start (Benadryl & some other stuff I don't remember) so you don't have a reaction. The infusion takes a couple hours and the dose you slowly during your first infusion. I stayed awake during the 1st couple and watched Netflix on my iPad. The last 2 I ended up taking a nap.

As for the side effects, I felt like sh*t for a couple days. I was infused on Fridays and by Monday was feeling better. After my last infusion I went back to work on the next Monday.

I was in and out of the hospital for about a month before they diagnosed me with gpa and didn't start feeling better until they put me on prednisone and then retuxin. It took me a couple months to get back feeling somewhat normal.

I took a CT scan of my lungs and the inflammation I had went down but is still there. The doctors are leaning toward giving me another round of retuxin in a couple months.

I'm not sure what long term effects are from it. My ankles swell up from time to time and occasionally I get migraines. Not sure if that's from the prednisone or from the gpa or what.

I did eat some weed edibles the days after infusions and it did help from not feeling like complete sh*t.

Good luck with whatever your going through and hopefully I was helpful

Hi there. I have just started my rituxan treatments. I have had two since October and feel great. The 1st one didn't go so well but the 2nd I felt like a new person a couple days later. So far really no side effects yet. I hope others can help that have had more of experience with this. Good luck.

I've been on it since 4/14 it is relatively a new drug recently approved by the FDA. Some side effects are nausea, fatigue, dizziness but as stated by a Dr working on a study of wegeners it is a agressive treatment and one he would use it for a member of his own family. That being said i've enjoyed the benefits ofRhituximab and only had 1 bad episode that quickly passed. I was told that i will be one treatment a year for the next ten years. My rhuemotologist from Yale said this really is the only known, recommended plan for long term maintenance unless new data comes along- good luck i hope this info has been helpful

I have had 2 infusions (that's all that's recommended in my case) and no side effects except feeling better! I can breathe again  

Was on it for 2 yrs, did absolutely nothing for me ,but may work for you, but don't put too much hope in it.