Yesterday Sucked, Today Sucks

Yesterday was a bad day for me.  On top of writing the post reliving 2018, and just the over all pain, pressure, fatigue, and just inability to really do much got to me.  Patience is something that my mother taught me to have, however, that’s being challenged from all angles lately.  I am taking Vicodin every 4-6 hours for pain, it helps, but its not enough.  I’ve also noticed that where the mucoceles were removed, and inside my mouth just hurts on the left side.  Maybe remnants of when I squeezed out the cysts, who knows at this point, or related to the sinusitis that won’t go away.

I got an email from my ENT’s NP today telling me what I had already known.  That no antibiotic will help with this, and this is one of those rare cases where surgical intervention is required.  Again, the osteoma is so big, that it’s blocking the only exit point for my sinuses.  The sinusitis has nowhere to go but hang out.  I replied back to her asking if she could talk to the ENT to get me moved up or bumped up ASAP.  I go wherever I need to go to get this done.  I really hope that I can get the sinus surgery sooner rather than later.  I am somewhat hopeful that the IVIg will start to work hopefully after 2-3 sessions, but the jury is still out on that one.

It seems that IVIg experiences are different between people.  Looking at reddit, forums, and just comments from the internet in general (Hey if its on the internet it must be true).  Some experiences are pretty quick and not many side effects, vs the extreme of anaphylaxis and meningitis.  Both of which I don’t want happening.  For the most part, most people complained of:

• mild headache
• dizziness
• tired feeling
• back pain, muscle cramps
• minor chest pain
• flushing (warmth, redness, or tingly feeling)

The IVIg that I’ll be getting is Octagam 5%.  The dosage amount will be 500mL.  So roughly the size of a bottle of water.  The takeaways from their website:

Thrombosis may occur with immune globulin intravenous (IGIV) products, including Octagam® 5% liquid. Risk factors may include: advanced age, prolonged immobilization, hypercoagulable conditions, history of venous or arterial thrombosis, use of estrogens, indwelling vascular catheters, hyperviscosity, and cardiovascular risk factors. 

Renal dysfunction, acute renal failure, osmotic nephrosis, and death may occur in predisposed patients with IGIV products, including Octagam® 5% liquid. Renal dysfunction and acute renal failure occur more commonly with IGIV products containing sucrose. Octagam® 5% liquid does not contain sucrose.


I know everything has a warning label, but man, I really hope this stuff does the trick.  Fear of the unknown has never sat well with me.  I’ve always been the one who needed a timeline, a schedule, a probable outcome, however, when it comes to the IVIg, this will be the first time I’ve ever done this.  Side effects aside, the infusion will take 5 hours, and I could really care less if it takes longer.  I am just glad that Immunoe was able to get everything done so quickly, however, working with my case manager @ my health insurance place (Yes, since I’m a chronic patient, I have my own nurse through the insurance company).  I’m pretty sure the approvals went through quickly just based on all the previous immune workup stuff that I had done.  The ace in the hole was going to be showing them that my antibodies to both the Pneumavax 23 and TDap were back to pre-immunization levels.

My attitude as of late has been shitty (sorry wife, I love you).  Again the pain, weakness, vision issues, pressures in my head, has really beat on my normal upbeat attitude.  I am trying to stay positive as much as I can, but from my vantage point, this just sucks.  I can’t do much.  Sit up for long periods of time, restless sleep, which by the way, I am sleeping 10-12 hours a day, but it feels like I only got 1 hour.  Since the neck/head pain has gotten worse, unfortunately I’ve been camped out on the couch.  God I miss sleeping in a bed.  The couch is fine, its not uncomfortable, just not “normal”.  Main reason is I get up so much, and have so much restless sleep, I don’t want to disturb my wife, she of all people needs her sleep, as I am pretty much relying on her for a lot right now.