Will Bexxar Make Me Sick?

Another dandy question from Cousin Kimmie of Denver. It will make me sick but not in the same manner as regular chemotherapy. As everyone knows, or probably has heard, chemo can wreak havoc on a body. The full course of most chemo treatment goes on for weeks or months, or longer in some cases. My first chemo started in March, 2004 and ended September, 2004. That therapy was called CHOP+R. The individual drugs included cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, prednisone (HUGE doses of that), and Rituxan. Each session took about 5 or 6 hours to administer the full doses of the various chemo drugs, then I got 3 weeks off to "recover". Chemo caused hair loss, fatigue, some nausea (usually for 1 to 2 days following treatment, but drugs for that helped a lot), fatigue, muscle weakness, fatigue, a few sores in my mouth and throat, fatigue, dizziness at times, and I usually had trouble sleeping until I got some really great drugs for that. Oh, and fatigue. A complication arose from my infusion port (a piece of hardware in my chest where the drugs were administered) that created a large blood clot in my shoulder and arm, where the tube entered a large artery. Once identified, the clot was cleared out in about 6 weeks.

Bexxar is not in the same family as most of those chemo drugs, except Rituxan, a monoclonal antibody similar to one of the ingredients in Bexxar. The side effects will be different and probably less severe. My hair won't fall out (don't have much left anyway), no nausea, no sores, no clots, no dizziness (subject to results of my Scotch Clinical Trial). But, the fatigue will be an issue caused by cytopenia (low blood counts). How much and how long that will last is unknown until we get down the road with this. The drug will be "pushed" through an IV in two sessions. No infusion port will have to be plugged into my chest again.

Oooooo. I kind of sound like I know what I'm talking about. Kind of like a doctor. Yeah, that's it, I'm....Dr. Scott, that's the ticket. Meet my nurse, Morgan Fairchild.