The Full Program – Round 1

R-IDARAM is the name of the program I am now on. The active drugs are :

Rituximub
IDArubicin
Dextamethasone
ARA-C (Cytarabine)
Methotrexate

I’m on few other pills to protect me from some of the effects of the above drugs.

I have now had the first drug. They administered it slowly measuring my blood pressure every 15 mins. This is because some people have reacted badly in the past from the drug. They gradually stepped up the flow rate (it was intravenous) but there was no bad reaction. That means on subsequent rounds they can start at the highest flow rate.

I think the rest of the drugs will be administered today. Not looking forward to the Dextamethasone. If I end up writing a 10 page blog entry at 3am you’ll know what way I’ve gone on the drug.

It will take up to a week for the drugs to be delivered then cleared from my system. They also want me at hand to keep a regular check on me post delivery. They are now suggesting I will remain in hospital for 3-4 weeks. A bit of a shocker that one. We will see what we can do. Perhaps move to a hospital nearer to home for the latter monitoring phase. We’ll see. And report of course. And all this is just round 1 of however many we don’t yet know.