18 Months

Today is my 18 month treatment-aversary. It was 18 months ago today that I received my first Rituxan treatment.

I think this is worth celebrating. When I went in for the Rituxan, I did a rough estimate of how people in the support group had reacted to the treatment. Some got no response from it at all. Others went a good long while on it. I figured that if Rituxan bought me a year, I would call it a success -- a year seemed to be about the average that people in the support group reported. I learned later on that the median duration of response is 10-12 months, so my guess was pretty good.

Now that I'm at 18 months? That's pretty gosh darn good, I'd say.

Of course, I haven't looked into it deeply enough to know if the median duration of response means 12 months until the lymphoma shows up again, or 12 months until treatment is needed again; I'm assuming the latter. The lymphoma may very well have shown up again by now, and it just isn't affecting me yet. I won't know that for sure until I get my next scan sometime next month. But all indications so far are that I'm still rolling along pretty well.

I tried to write a love poem to Rituxan, to show my appreciation, but I only finished two verses, and then I couldn't rhyme anything with "Antibody-dependent Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity," and then the verses about side effects were just weird, so I stopped.  But I'm sure what I did write gives you a pretty good sense of my feelings for Rituxan.

Ode to Rituxan

You might be called, generically,
that sweet rituximab.
If that's the case,
I say to your face,
I still think that you're fab.


You might be called, internationally,
The so lovely MabThera.
Well, what the hell,
As long as to B cells
You remain a terror.


It matters not what I call you
As long as you do your work,
By apoptosis, [And then I had to stop here]

Anyway, learn more abouit Rituxan at the Patients Against Lymphoma web site (http://www.lymphomation.org/rituxan.htm). Really, anything you'd want to know about this amazing treatment.