Ah, you are talking about IVIG. My husband Alan does this twice a month. It's called a double load. Two consecutive days, a month. The first time you have to go into the hospital (usually) for 5 days (so they can monitor and see how you tolerate the procedure), it has all kinds of risks and some can't tolerate it. Alan tolerated it very well.

Until his last one when the bag had a leak (but that's a whole other story). He came down with a temperature the next day of 101.5. I had to monitor him very closely. Some people get really bad headaches. And you say the IVIG is one hour. My husband's prescription is for 4 hours and when the last nurse did it in 3, that's when he got sick the next day. We will never know if the bag was contaminated or what!!!

But research this hard and long before you let anyone give you a one hour infusion. I am not that well informed on IVIG and believe me, other's will jump in and educate you.

I don't know why the doctor told you it's once a week. Maybe some people do this for once a week. But many others do it once a month.


I'm extremely interested why some docs tell you once a week and others do not!!!

And as far as the 500 of he B-12. That's nothing. It's all about the malabsorbtion of it. Doctors are not educated about B-12, but the guys and gals on these forums know what they are talking about. They'll respond to this thread and give you all sorts of good info.
And the numbers for B12 deficiency, well, there is too much of a gap between what's normal and what's not. Aim for a 4 digit number. My number (the first time I got a reading) was 944. I'm aiming for much higher. See, Methyl B-12 heals nerves. Takes some time to do this but it does heal.

If you ask your doctor about B-12 methyl, believe me, he just might pooh-pooh it. Or they might say "can't hurt".

Listen to the people on these boards. They know what they are talking about.

Melody

P.S. Now let's talk about Interstitial Cystitis. How did you get the diagnosis because believe me, what I went through with my bladder (over 10 years ago), well, I wouldnt' relive those days for all the money in the world. I walked around with the pressure down there and I went nuts. Had every test in the book from a cystoscope, to a trans vaginal sonogram. They would always find nothing. I was under a great deal of stress at the time (due to my son's behavior), and now I know that it was all bladder spasms.

But I had gone to urologist, after urologist and one time I asked one of them "how do you know I DO NOT have Interstitial Cystitis", (see I read all about this on the internet and I had all the symptoms), and at the time, the only test to absolutely know if you have this condition is they pump your bladder full of water until they can see the tiny pinpricks of blood on the walls of your bladder. I asked the urologist, "are they going to do that to me?" and he said "are you nuts, we don't do that to women any more".

So have they developed a newer, more diagnostic tool for this condition?

thankfully, in my case, one day (7 years or so ago), I was in the shower and the hot water was running down my body and all the spasming stopped. I wasn't on anything. It just stopped.

I will never forget all those years of bladder torture if I live to be 100 years old.

Melody