Update

Well, the past couple of weeks we thought our 22 year old son was starting to beat this ITP, his platelets were slowly rising to as high as 63,000 with the lowering of the prednisone down to 160mg, last week his platelets dropped to 23000, so this week and the next following weeks they are taking him off the prednisone and starting him on that Rituxin drip(first treatment starts tomorrow for 7 hours. He is also being called in for interviews also on several police departments, so he is close to hopefully gettting hired on a police department. We are praying his ITP will not detract them from hiring him. I bought him a silicone medical alert wrist band to wear with ITP on it. What does anyone know of this Rituxan? Praying this will finally work for him, he is getting so discouraged. He also developed a huge cellulitis infection in his knee from an in grown hair and had to have antibotics IV and the doc said it was due to the immune system being down from the prednisone. UGH! Now the bills are starting to roll in, the first hospital stay for 2 days was $37000! Thankfully we owe 2000 so far on that stay, have not recieved the second hospital say yet.

Rituxan has worked quite well for a lot of people here. I've used it twice and had a one year remission the first time, and (so far) a 7 year remission the second time.

Good luck - I hope it works for him too! It usually doesn't kick in until 3 to 12 weeks after the first infusion, so you have to be patient.

It's really hard to not get discouraged, I know how he feels. It's nice to see your son has a very supportive family behind him no matter his situation.

I have had two treatments of Rituxan. The first lasted aproximatly 16 months. The second is going on 2+ years. Both times it took several weeks after the last treatment before I seen any results. It was a slow climb. Counts the first time reached around 250k. The second round I was a high as 350k. I am bouncing around from 150-200k right now. I have had Cellulitis 3 times. First was on my forearm, second was on my elbow, third (which was the worst) was on my knee. It swelled up like a softball. Did not work for a week. definatly not how I wanted to take some time off!!! During the second round of Rituxan I ran into a road block with insurance. The day before the 4 treatment we got a letter stating that my insurance was denying the treatment!! Not good news!!! 3 appeals were sent and denied. Each treatment was around 8k. I wound up paying for only one treatment. 8k was definatly better than 30+k. We pay around $500 a month for family coverage. Why am I paying this if you are not going to cover me when needed. They said their Physican reviewer did not feel it was Medically necessary to have the treatment. Who is he/she to decide what is Medically necessary for me!!! According to the policy, I should have had a Spleenectomy. Whomever is not my DR!!!! I was so MAD!!! I wanted to call the insurance co. and rip them a new one!!! But I did not need the stress of fighting with them. So, make sure the Rituxan will be covered!! Hoping everything goes OK and he finds a job!!!
Good Luck!!!