Wednesday, March 12, 2008

IVIG

My IVIG came today via FedEx. I'm so thankful to have this delivered to my door. It's so nice to be home while having a treatment and much more relaxing than a hospital. I encountered quite a few disturbing situations while receiving IVIG in local hospitals in the past. I'm blessed to be able to do this at home now.

Do others who receive IVIG do it at home? Infusion clinic? Hospital?

What do you do for premeds? I take Tylenol, Tagamet, steroid, and sometimes Benadryl. In recent months, I've found drinking plenty of water before, during, and after IVIG therapy works wonders. Does that work for others, too?

To keep the nausea to a minimum, I'm better off not having an empty stomach. I try to have light snacks during the infusion to ward off nausea. Doesn't always work, but sometimes I get lucky.

I find that sometimes even up to five days after a treatment, I get debilitating migraines. They usually last only a day or two, but they're miserable. That being said, the treatment is still worth it...the benefit outweighs the side effects any day!

What about you? I've heard from several of you with CIDP. Care to share how you beat IVIG side effects? What works best for you?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beyond the usual Tylenol, Benadryl and lots of fluids, an experienced nurse recommended, of all things, high-fat snacks throughout the infusion period. Most of all, a slow infusion over a period of 5 hours.

--Al

Kristen Reyna said...

Al,
Thanks for your comment! Thanks for visiting my blog and hope to hear from you again soon!
Kristen

Anonymous said...

I'm older than most bloggers and have never left a comment. Hope I do it right. I'm just now searching "google" for CIDP blogs, because, believe it or not, I'm a doctor and can't get much more info or help than anyone else out there.

Can you please tell us more about home IVIG infusion as it is very, very difficult for me to get to the hospital infusion center. I've have three days of infusions, and had every reaction I'd ever warned my patients about. Do you feel safe doing this at home? I'm just recently diagnosed and have missed three cycles because of no transportation and no one to take care of me thru the night and days after infusions.
I can offer some other shortcuts and tips in exchange for first hand feed-back. I'm afraid of being accussed of offering medical "advice" and doing it wrong. May i stay anon? Thanks