So as I said in my last post, my doctors and I are getting better at predicting when these flares with my disorder are going to happen. With that knowledge in hand, we can adjust the timing of the Rituxan infusion in order catch the flares before they happen. Of course, the best case scenario is to completely eliminate the flares by having the infusion and other medications beat them before they happen.

Unfortunately, this was not that time. Getting the orders changed for Rituxan proved to be a few weeks of challenge, a bit too long. I went to bed Sunday night in rough shape, squirming quite a bit from pain, weakness and a pretty bad headache. I woke up just a few hours later and was completely over any pain threshold I could handle, and headed to the ER.

Once there, they ran some quick labs to see where I was with muscle breakdown and some nutrients. Shortly after, was admitted and I’ve been here ever since. There are four issues running here…

1. I need to be able to know the exact date for the next infusion so that the doctors here know how much to boost me with solumedrol to make it there. The hope is to keep this boost a minimum, because as anyone taking or having taken them can attest…steroids can be a big issue. Which leads me to…
2. The high dose of steroids has for the second time in the last year pushed me into high A1C levels, which is a three-month average for blood sugar. Last year it hit 7, right now is it close to 9. This essentially makes me diabetic. At the moment anyways, because the cause is artificial, although I still need to be careful. As with last year, with the infusion taking over and the steroids coming back down, my blood sugar should start to return to normal. In the meantime, I’ll be sent home with both long-acting and short-acting insulin.
3. Because of the excess thirst and extra waste that I’ve had in the past few weeks, due apparently to the A1C trouble, I’ve been losing a lot of the potassium in my body despite taking supplements at home. The reference range for this is 3.5 – 5 normal. Mine was 2.5 coming in, but at 4 as I sit here now. The danger of this lies in the heart’s ability to receive the electrical impulses it needs to operate.
4. Pain and weakness are simply overtaking my body more often than not.

As far as I know at this moment, I will be here until at least Thursday. My two inpatient stays in 2016 were 8 days and 5 days respectively, so let’s see if I can keep ticking that down. In the meantime, time to catch up on some meditation, reading and video games.