[hajile99]

My IVIg treatment got approved and is starting on Monday for 5 days. The pharmacist went over some of what to expect, as well as some of the potential side effects. Anything those of you with experience would recommend doing or not doing to help make this as smooth and painless at possible? Anything you wish you knew prior to the treatment that you'd care to share? Thanks!!

[scrubbs]

Everyone that gets infusions thinks that it is important to drink lots of water.

Some think it is important to pretreat with benadryl and tylenol. I do.

scrubbs

[bny806]

good luck!!! Agree, lots and lots and lOTS of water - I start the night before and all throughout the infusion until a day afterwards.. it's a pain to have to drink so much, but makes a huge difference.
I got aseptic meningitis in the hospital.. i didnt' drink enough water, plus I had no idea about IVIG.. they ramped up the rate to like 200 the 2nd night.. apparently that was too much.. it is very rate dependent - the side effects that is. I started getting a headache the 2nd night, didn't know it was a warning sign and continued to go at around 200 the next night, not knowing that was the wrong thing to do.. so go slower, if you have a history of migraines and are female, that increases your risk of headaches as side effects.. water helps with it all! IT was all amazingly worth it for me, your smart to be doing your research! Good luck!!!

[hajile99]

Thanks for the input. I had heard to drink water, and thankfully I constantly drink water anyway, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for me. I'll just pay a bit more attention to make sure I'm drinking. The pharmacist also advised me to take a Tylenol or Advil prior to each day to hopefully prevent or at least lessen the magnitude of the potential headaches.

The pharmacist said that he would expect the first day to take about 5 hours and the following days to take about 3-4 hours. I'm not sure what that would break down to as far as a rate, and I'm sure it varies since the volume is based on your weight, but hopefully I'll have a good, responsive nurse, just in case.

And not prone to migraines (or headaches, even), and definitely not female!

Thanks again (and hoping it helps!!)