Lets see what we have today. Overslept so ended up at work a bit late as I was supposed to be showing J my arm at 6:30 at the hospital to prove that I don't have TB; duh. Got there just about 7 and presented arm and sure enough, no TB. Yay! *twirls finger* :-) She handed me a copy of the paperwork for the intermittent leave they faxed over to Aetna; haven't had a chance to look over it yet to see how much time exactly they're saying that I get to use it for for the rest of the year. Said it was faxed over Friday. Called and the automated system said it's still pending. I haven't had a chance to check the mail yet to see if there's anything else I need to personally fill out and sign and send back; will be doing that today. Called and verified how the intermittent leave things works when/if it's approved and when I need to use it, I just call. Easy. I like that. J called a couple hours after I got in to work asking if I was at work yet and I said yeah and after inquiring she said I need to have a chest x-ray done as well pre-Rituxan. Ok. Have an appt Wed and will get it down afterwards since I don't need an appt for the x-ray; means having to take less time off. Still haven't start crazy drug treatment, even if insurance approves it, until the intermittent leave (FMLA) has been approved. So probably still another week or two out. Not looking forward to the first round. Scares me.
Read through the glossy Rituxan book Dr P gave me this past Sat. Haven't gotten to the dvd yet. Will be tonight or tomorrow. Pretty much every page mentions different possible side-effects none of which are particularly pleasant. The reoccurring theme of the primary side-effect that I can tell so far is increased possibility of infections. Considering I've gone just about a year now without so much as a cold *knocks on self*, one of these 4 medications I'm taking is keeping that kind of stuff away. Guess as we start tapering off the drugs we'll see which one it was if I start getting sick. Aside from that, most of the other side-effects seem to only effect a small percentage of folks and it's folks who have flavors of stuff I don't.
So the questions remains: Is it better to take a medication that will help with ailment over the long term despite the possible side-effects that can be potentially pretty awful?
I know I'm going to try this. Just worried about all the yucky side-effects. Then again, the only drug out of the 4 that I'm taking that I've seen any side-effects personally with is the prednisone and out of the potentially awful ones, mine have been pretty minor. None with the others so far. Maybe I'll get lucky with the Rituxan
Appt Wed to try and check on the head space then chest x-ray. Must remember to check mail this afternoon and send back anything that is outside of the Dr's paperwork. Gah. So much to remember to do. Hopefully when I get home maybe at least the maintenance people will have remove the last of the wasps nests on my balcony and the eves above. Would like to get back to using it on occasion.
Hope everyone has a great week!
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