The first time I had chemo, they gave me R-CHOP. This time they're giving my R-ICE. It's an acronym for the medicines they use in the therapy. One nice thing about R-ICe is that none of the drugs are vessicants -- drugs that burn your veins.
The way they do this chemo varies from place to place. Here's how they are doing it for me. Unlike R-CHOP, R-ICE takes 3-4 days to administer each time.
Day 1: Rituximab / Rituxin - First, they gave me some IV Benadryl, which made me cough (ironic) and then made me very loopy. After 30 minutes, they started the Rituxin. Since I'd had it before as part of my previous chemo, they thought they could give it to me this time at a higher rate, but it gave me a very scratchy throat. They gave me another antihistamine and then really slowed down the Rituxin, so that it took well into the night for this to finish. The scratchy throat problem totally resolved.
Day 2 (today): Etoposide - Premeds for this are anti-vomiting drugs: Zofran and Decadrol. The etoposide will take about an hour to infuse.
Day 3 (tomorrow): Etoposide, Ifosfamide, Carboplatin
I'm getting a lot of Ifosfamide. It'll take ~24 hours to administer. Ifosfamide is given along with Mesna, which is a drug that specifically fights a side effect of Ifosfamide that irritates the bladder. Another interesting side effect that occurs about 20% of the time is CNS (central nervous system) effects. Namely, moodiness, confusion, hallucinations. This only about 3 days. If you see me acting more strangely than normal, let me know.
Carboplatin is a platinum-based drug. Studies have shown that carboplatin often has the side effect of causing some hearing loss in 10 to 15 years. They'll be watching my platelets as well. There's no such thing as a platelet booster drug, so if my platelets get too low,
Day 4 (Saturday): Etoposide. I should be home by lunch time.
Post-treatment: I don't know what the plan is yet. Could be Neulasta and Emend. I'll keep you posted.
Of course, I'm expecting all my hair to fall out in the next couple weeks. That's a side effect of all three drugs in ICE.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteHealthline just designed a virtual guide of the effects of chemotherapy on the body. You can see the infographic here: http://www.healthline.com/health/cancer/effects-on-body
This is valuable med-reviewed information that can help a person understand the side effects they are experiencing from their chemo treatment. I thought this would be of interest to your audience, and I’m writing to see if you would include this as a resource on your page: http://capthots.blogspot.in/2011/01/r-ice-chemotherapy.html
If you do not believe this would be a good fit for a resource on your site, even sharing this on your social communities would be a great alternative to help get the word out.
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