I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Rituxan was to be part of my treatment. Unfortunately, in less than 20 minutes after starting the Rituxan I experienced almost every side effect that is listed for the drug and took me more than 2 hrs to recover from it. My doctor felt that I may be extremely allergic to the drug so we discontinued it. The CLL went into remission for only 5 months or so and my Lymph Nodes started to swell up again. This time the biopsies indicated Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma and therefore Rituxan would be needed for EPOCH-R treatment. Obviously, the re-introduction of the Rituxan was of a major concern for me and my doctor so the plan was to administer the drug slowly in your hospital. Your entire nursing staff during my stay was incredible but I would also like to give accolades to the nurse in charge of making sure I tolerated the Rituxan with minimal side effects.
Cory was outstanding in his attention to detail and his knowledge of what to look for, what actions to take, and explaining what he was doing. If I had an itch on my nose and I scratched it he wanted to know why; he never took his eyes off of me, even while we watched the Chicago Cubs (his hometown team) beat the Dodgers to go on to the World Series! I was very nervous about receiving the Rituxan but after the first day with Cory, my anxiety quickly went away. He is an outstanding asset to your nursing staff!