Moving Right Along

Things have been progressing in a stable, predicted manner - that suits us just fine!  Here are the highlights...

  • Andy's September 24 infusion went well.  As expected, the fatigue was crazy for a few days afterward, but he spent the weekend in bed he was able to return to work with no problems. 
  • In early October he dropped his daily steroid dose from 20mg to 17.5mg.  Thankfully, there haven't been any noticeable changes.  
  • Two weeks after the steroid drop, he was able to discontinue his prophylactic antibiotic.  Now that he's on a lower steroid dose, he's less likely to develop some of the infections that they were concerned about.  Hooray for one less medication!
  • Tomorrow, November 7, he will drop down to 15mg daily.  
We're very pleased that things have been going according to plan.  As I've mentioned before, this will be a long year as they play with the meds to find the right fit for him.  The hope is that eventually he can wean off of steroids completely and just rely on the Rituxan infusions.  Time will tell if his body will allow that or not.  There are other drugs that he can try if necessary.  

As for his day-to-day status, he does have symptoms that he deals with on the regular.  Sometimes they're visible, other times only he notices them.  Fatigue is probably the biggest offender; there is a constant weariness that he just can't shake.  Sadly, the steroids prevent him from sleeping well so that makes the (disease-related) fatigue even worse!  We'd ask for prayer in that area, that he would be able to get the rest that he needs to keep him functioning well. 

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