Finally got my first injection!

April 19, 2005

Hi all!

As some of you know, I've been waiting patiently for MONTHS now to receive

my first injection of Xolair. About a week and a half ago, I received two

injections... one in each arm (300mg total) and I can happily say that I

didn't react! My doctor made me wait for 2 hours following the injections,

and informed me that I will have to wait that long each time I go. I'm to

receive 300 mg every 2 weeks. I know that the Accredo called my doctor to

have my dose adjusted when they saw my prescription and my Ige count.

Apparently my doc thought I should be getting 300 mg once per month, because

the dosing chart he had didn't give a dose for my Ige level... I was

literally off of the chart. Accredo spoke to him and told him what my dose

should be.

I have to admit I haven't noticed any improvement. I am encouraged however,

because in the last week and a half, I've been coughing seemingly non stop,

and bringing up TONS of mucus. (Gross, I know) As a steroid dependant

(almost 7 years now) I'm thinking that it's possible my inflammation level

has gone down and I'm coughing up stuff that is normally just " stuck " and

has nowhere to go. I could be wrong, but I haven't coughed up this much

gunk in YEARS!

My PO2 level is holding TERRIFIC for me. I only had one attack this week

where it dipped below 95... as opposed to my " norm " of dipping that low at

least 2 or 3 times per DAY!

My other meds are still the same, Advair 50/500 one puff twice per day, 10

mg Singulair once, Zyrtec once, Nexium twice per day, Pulmicort twice per

day, 60 mg of Prednisone daily, 1mg of klonipin twice per day, Albuterol and

Atrovent, Xopenex (to be used during flare ups with Pulmicort 3 times per

day) and my doctor just introduced Intal every morning via neb... which is

frustrating as I took Intal for YEARS and it made little to no difference.

I have my green plan, yellow plan and red plan (the plan I like to call the

911 plan as that's pretty much all I can do) The yellow plan has me

increase my prednisone to 60 mg 3 times per day for 3 days... if after the

third day I show no improvement... it's time for me to be in the hospital.

Also the yellow plan includes increases in my Advair (which I've never heard

of but I have TWO docs telling me this is ok for the same 3 days) increases

in the pulmicort, and using my oxygen at 2 liters for a minimum of 8 hours.

So, hopefully there will be more improvement after my second round of

injections this Friday. Wish me luck, and thanks to all of you who waited

patiently with me on this voyage... I'm finally on my way!

" Trying to forget someone you've loved, is like trying to remember someone

you've never met.... "

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