A Brief Update

This will be a shorter blog post, which is exciting for me because that means nothing bad is going on!

We discovered that my body was having an allergic reaction to one of my medications, so I stopped taking it and within a couple of days I was feeling much better!

Last week I had my first infusion, and I am so grateful that it turned out to be pretty uneventful. The infusion center was actually really nice and relaxing. It didn’t feel like a medical facility, which helped ease my mind a bit.

Before the infusion started they had to do some blood work. And I had assumed that with all the blood tests I’ve had to do these past few months that I wouldn’t have to lay down anymore. However, within a couple minutes I immediately felt super lightheaded and was noticeably pale (well, more pale than usual). So I learned my lesson that no matter how many blood tests I have to endure, I will never be comfortable enough to be sitting up during them.

Then the actual infusion started. I was hooked up to the IV for about 30-40 minutes. I had to be extremely mindful of my body, because if any sort of allergic reaction occurred it needed to be taken care of as soon as possible. But luckily nothing happened! They had me stay there for about 25 minutes after the infusion was complete just to make sure nothing happened, and then I got to go home!

About an hour after the infusion, I started to notice that some of my joints were hurting and that my leg muscles felt really tired and sore. The best way to describe this feeling was that it felt like I had gone on a super long hike the day before. My mom checked the list of side effects I was sent home with and joint pain/muscle fatigue were on the list. They didn’t bother me enough to take any pain medicine, but it was definitely noticeable.

The following day I was still dealing with the muscle fatigue, but other than that was doing pretty well. I took a shower and shaved my legs, and when I got out of the shower I noticed that hives were forming on my legs. This was peculiar since I hadn’t changed any of the products I had been using and had never had an allergic reaction before. The hives only lasted about 20 minutes, but then once I rinsed my legs under cold water they went away. My mom called the doctor and we were told to not worry too much about it. If it happens again after my next infusion, then they can start giving me Benadryl while I’m at the infusion center.

I’m hoping things continue to be uneventful. While I’m feeling much better since my last blog post, I am still dealing with flare ups pretty consistently. But hopefully as I get some more infusions under my belt they start to go away.

I never thought I’d be so happy to say that things are uneventful, but uneventful means I feel the most normal I’ve ever felt, so I’m pretty damn stoked about that.