Time today for my second maintenance/booster session, and all went quite as usual. In fact, they must have dripped me a little faster than last week since I am finished nearly an hour earlier. Again the benadryl doesn't quite knock me out, though one of the nurses jokes about "nighty-night" as that drip starts.
I have noted an upsurge in what I perceive to be my neuropathy symptoms, i.e., more tingling pain in my feet, especially my right which had improved these past few months a great deal; more tingling in my fingertips and a greater perception of hot water; leg/shin cramps for several nights; one practice session on my trumpet where my lips tired all of a sudden. I wondered about that, then further wondered what the mechanism might be. It occurred to me that the retuxin should not have any such direct effect since its effects would be gradual and chronic. My first symptoms this past week seemed to occur within hours of my first infusion. It slowly dawned on me--how long have I been absent from my profession?--that what I might be experiencing were associative effects, conditioned effects, as it were, due to my prior history with this mono-clonal-antibody. I asked ABJ today about whether rituxin administration is mentioned as producing such effects. His answer: Yes! Case closed. The symptoms have not really persisted, though I detect, I think, a slightly higher level of neuropathy than before this series began. Several of the effects have not persisted: e.g., leg cramps and embouchure failure.
Now the good news: My CT scan of Monday last is as clean as a whistle. No adrenergic involvement. Of course, the other old age crap is still there: I have some calcification in my arteries, etc. but am otherwise healthy. This calls for vacation planning!
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