[Raglet]

Just to be different, I had a severe reaction ( very bad asthma - I dropped my oxygen sats) and the first dose had to be abandoned. My second dose was done in ICU. I have recently had another two doses that we did better with - we really focused on getting my asthma as good as possible and they gave me 1000mg iv steroids before each treatment, so my asthma wasn't as bad but still needed lots of nebulisers to get me through. I am allergic to mice, and the rituximab antibody is half mouse, half human. I am looking forward to the fully humanised version.

most people don't have this sort of reaction though, I was just unlucky.

raglet

 

[Raglet]

hi Amanda

When cyclo (cytoxan) is given with rituxan, it is not given to treat the lupus but rather to help the rituxan work by preventing us making antibodies against the rituxan. At least that is the theory, who knows if it works ! It is a much smaller dose of cyclo than is usually given - I only have 500mg cyclo after rituxan, whereas if I am just having cyclo on it's own I usually have 1500mg.

Some doctors use the rituxan/cyclo protocol, some don't.

hth

raglet