Thursday, March 22, 2012

Adcetris the second cycle, Day 3

So far so good.
My biggest problems seem to be related to the reduction in prednisone. General body and joint aches. Hmmm.. although thinking about it that's a side effect of adcetris too!
Anyway my knees are really stiff and my hips ache at night. It's like I suddenly aged twenty years overnight! Mind you my knees were always stiff and painful, it's the steroids that have masked that for the last two years. Welcome back to my old worn out body complaints !  ;)

I did feel very flu-like yesterday and ran a low grade fever in the evening. That hasn't happened tonight so far. I also felt very chesty like I had bronchitis, but that's improved today. What part the cotrimoxazole antibiotic I'm taking as a prophylactic has played in keeping that at bay is anyone's guess.
I'm still coughing up gunk from my lungs. That could be for anyone of a dozen reasons from inflammation, dying cancer cells or even infection.

I'm now on only 15 mcg of insulin a day, half what I was taking just a few weeks ago when I was on 20+mg of prednisone (now 14mg). I'm also managing to keep my blood sugar readings within the normal range with very little effort or change in my current diet.

It's been about ten days since I last had a sleeping pill too (zopiclone). In the previous eighteen months I couldn't get to sleep due to the itching. I haven't had any side effects from the sudden stop, and no rebound insomnia either. I'm sleeping as well as I ever did prior to getting sick (which is pretty good!).

Last cycle the worst side effects occurred around the next few days. However I've been told that adcetris is cumulative, so there would still be residual amounts of the drug in my system. This might mean that I react totally different this time, or maybe not at all.

Here's hoping!  ..Ron

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