Happy Friday! Yes! Friday again! What to do? Stay home and watch TV with the kids? Yard work? Take a drive around town to see if anyone else is driving around town? Yep! That’s the limit of things we can do, for the most part! Guess I could go for a walk in an open park (They’re not ALL open you know), but I can walk in the neighborhood, so why drive and waste the gas? The trials and tribulations of Corona Quarantine! I think we’ll all survive though. At least… I hope so. With the all the kids home, that statement feels rather fluid at times. 🙂
So, I left off talking a little bit about my first Ocrevus Infusion and the fact that it was, mostly, just fine. From MY point of view. My wife does not share those sentiments, so I tried to coax her into writing, but she already has a full plate with her job, managing the household, etc…etc..etc. I think I can capture things from her perspective pretty well, so you’ll just have to humor me!
Infusion day, for us, means… making sure that our 7 year old gets to school as early as possible so that we can make it to the hospital in time. Additionally, we have to enlist the help of a friend for the whole, “just in case” scenarios they warn us about (i.e. Allergic Reaction). Not sure why, but it seems we always SPEED OVER to the hospital. Perhaps it’s just my OCD nature to be on time? Certainly possible. 🙂
Anyway, you get to the hospital and try to find parking near the infusion center. Were you aware that hospitals have infusion centers? I certainly wasn’t, even though in retrospect it makes sense. The nurses, all of whom are just awesome, take you from the waiting room to your CHAIR! Ta-Dah! The CHAIR is where you will be for the next 4-8 hours. It’s a comfortable chair and the nurses bring warm blankets that help even more (Like I said… awesome!).
The infusion starts with a shot of benadryl and steroids to help prevent allergic reaction. Allergic reactions can vary in severity, but for the most part they are treated with another shot of benadryl and slow down on how fast they try to “infuse” the Ocrevus. The reactions to steroids will be for a separate blog! Then, it’s just a waiting game until the Ocrevus runs out and you are released. Oh yeah! They keep you in the CHAIR for an hour after the infusion just to make sure everything is OK.
My wife, who stayed with me the whole time for each starter infusion, would say that everything I just wrote was true. She would also add that the infusion center was really a sad place to be. Why? Well, for the most part, Im a pretty healthy looking guy. So being in the infusion chair… you might wonder why I’m there when you see the other folks in their own chairs. Many of the folks getting infusions are, well…, this is mean to say perhaps, but they just appear.. very sick.
Im not sure how many of those folks have cancer or perhaps a blood disorder (Or whatever), but for me to be next to all of those people with very serious health issues… it was just tough for my wife to see. Neither she, nor I, really want to consider the fact that MS requires the same kind of treatment (Infusions are for Chemo and a variety of other meds too) that these very serious diseases require. But then, are we being too naive? MS is pretty dang serious too I guess. 🙁
So, the positive about all this, my next infusion isn’t until July or August of this year! That is awesome vs daily/weekly treatments! Fortunately, that means that, as long as Ocrevus does its job and there are no more Exacerbations, we can once again ignore MS! Or so it is to be hoped!
That is the long, or short, of the infusion process. I’ll talk about the side affects of the infusion in my next post. Oh yes, it doesn’t all end when the infusion stops…. but I’ll get into that next time!
Have a great weekend y’all!
