Thursday, September 23, 2010

Hello All --

A rough day today.

Craig had his first round of Rituxan IV 1 week ago Wednesday. That went well.

This past weekend he did not feel well -- short of breath, probably from the extra fluid around his lungs. We are trying to stretch out the time between dialysis and perhaps not do it at all. His kidney function (ability to clear toxins) is improving but extra fluid is still a problem. He has not had dialysis for almost 2 weeks now.

He also had problems this past weekend with being extrtememly weak and we think he has steroid myopathy, which is a weakness of the thighs and upper arms caused by being on high doses of prednisone for a long time. He has trouble climbing stairs and pushing up from a couch or chair. Also he is tapering down on the steroid which can make a person feel really crummy. So he spent a lot of time on the couch this past weekend due to weakness and breathing issues.

Yesterday he got his 2nd infusion of Rituxan. He gets premedicated with IV steroids and also got some IV Lasix diuretic and was feeling much better after all of that.

However at 2 am today he woke up with chills and excruciating pain in his right thigh. He couldn't bear any weight on his right leg. By 7 am we were in the ambulance back down to Swedish Hospital. They did ultrasound and found no blood clots in the thigh. He did have a low grade temp and may have a touch of pneumonia so was admitted for IV antibiotics. He is in line to have an MRI of the thigh but as of 6:30 pm it had not happened yet -- apparently they do them 24/7 so he may have it at midnight for all I know.

No change in the protein spillage yet but he has only received 2 of the planned 3 infusions of Rituxan so we are still hopeful.

Thanks for your continued support.

Love, Sharon

ps It just occurred to me that since he is on steroids, we need to think about avascular necrosis of the femoral head. None of the doctors mentioned that to us, but maybe they had it on their list of possibilities. The MRI should be helpful in looking for that. He had the MRI at 8 pm tonight so we should know results tomorrow.