Maintenance Rituximab for me

I had to go back and look at my previous appts. Looks like I am there for about 4.5 hours. I know they take vitals every 30 mins but I don't think I've counted how many times they take vitals. I would guess the Rituxan infusion itself is around 3 hrs. My next one is at the end of the month. I'll try ot pay more attention to when they start the infusion and when we are done. 

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3 said:

Correct

PBL,

When I was looking for info regarding Rituxan injected via shot, I called the lead RN at my Survivorship Clinic, the place where I am followed for life, and where my annual labs are done and discussed.

She said she was an infusion nurse years before, and was the nurse who delivered the center's first-ever dose of Rituxan to a patient in the 90s.  The cancer center at that time was sort of subcontracted to the hospital, and even then had over 15 oncologists, and numerous branches across a lot of counties. It is now wholly-owned by the hospital system, has well over 20 oncologists, plus a dozen or so oncology surgeons.

She said that first patient went into some form of severe shock, and they had to bring her back...successfully, and the patient was even able to continue Rituxan therapy later.   But I do not envision Rituxan ever being given at a doctor's office during a walk-in.

Two of my drugs (Adriamycin and Vinblastine) were given as push-pull cylinders rather than as drip bags.  When I asked why that was, the nurse said because the drugs are vesicants, or blister agents, and cannot be allowed to spill. If they do spill, he said they have to call DHEC and set up an exclusion zone until it is cleaned up to DHEC standards.  Of course Rituxan in NOT a vesicant, but it is still serious stuff.

At my infusion center (around 40 infusion stations) I notices a device on wheels at the nurse's desk one day, and asked what it was; the answer was "the crash cart."  

What becomes routine and mundane for us over time really is not.  The first-ever chemo drug was developed in secret between government doctors and one of the world's premire cancer institutes toward the end of WW II.  And it was specifically used to treat leukemia and lymphoma.  Its name is Mustargen, derived from Mustard Gas, which is still tightly controlled by international Chemical Warfare protocols.  Mustargen is still a regular chemo drug today, in common use for a variety of cancers. It is a core drug in the HL combination MOPP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlormethine

http://chemocare.com/chemotherapy/drug-info/Mustargen.aspx

max

Hello Max,

Indeed, all of those products routinely used to treat and control our diseases are anything but benign, as anyone who has experienced their side effects will testify.

Isn't it marvellous and ironic though, how we "lymphomaniacs" owe our survival to the wilful administration of such "life-saving poisons" as alcaloids from exotic periwinkle plants (Vincristine, Vinblastine), or the relatively novel (in the Western world) Bendamustine, one of those mustard-gas-derived chemo drugs developed in East Germany in the early 1960s...

Of course, unlike the chemo drugs per se, Rituxan is not a "poison". However, it occasionally can - and does - cause major allergic reactions in some patients, due to its chimeric (hamster/human) nature. Hence the antihistamine and prednisone premedication, slow infusion, close surveillance - and also, of course, the crash cart near at hand. The reassuring bit is that the first Rituxan infusion is often the one that causes the strongest reaction - and then we somehow get used to it...

PBL

I had my second Rituxan maintenance treatment on February 22 - and I timed - was very similar to lindary's. The pre-meds took about an hour to go thru, then the Rituxan took just over two hours for me. After that, unhooked and out the door.