Rituxan

I have been treated with rituxan twice. The first time was about 2004-05, the second around 2011. I went to an infusion center once a week for four weeks. They stuck a needle in my arm and hooked me up to a bottle of the rituxan. The first infusion took about 4 hours, they went slow to be sure there were no side effects. The rest of the infusions took about 2 hours. I experienced little or no reaction to the process other than going home the first day and sleeping for a couple hours. After all the other infusions I went about my daily business. Rituxan can be very expensive. When I was originally treated my health insurance company picked up the cost. I don't have those records with me at the moment so I'm not sure what they paid. The second time I was on Medicare and rituxan is not covered for my condition. It is considered an experimental treatment. Initially the infusion center quoted me a price of $8000 per treatment including a discount for paying early. Through my neurologist I was able to obtain help from the Genentech Foundation. They ended up paying the entire amount. There are limits to your income to be part of this program. You can do a search on the web and you might find some wildly varying costs for rituxan, but then there are wildly varying costs for all our medical treatment, such is the system of American health care.

April 2013

It has been quite awhile since I last posted which I guess is good. I have been feeling pretty good and always feel better if I keep moving as in cycling or working out. Lately my hands have been feeling a little more consistent numbness which leads me to believe my blood numbers are starting to climb again. I think it is about time to return to the neurologist for another blood test. As maybe I have said before the blood test is the best indicator of where the disease is. However with all that said overall I'm feeling pretty good, my energy is up, my fitness is up and my strength is holding pretty steady. The fact that I not losing a lot of strength is confusing to my old neurologist as strength loss is something that others with the disease experience. I should add that last years blood test showed me as normal with no indication of the disease. Very good news indeed which I attribute to the rituxan.