Good afternoon folks! It’s Tuesday, February 16th, and it’s a cold blustery day here in Charlotte. We’ve gotten totally saturated with rain over the last few days, while just a few miles to the north… snow and ice seem to be the norm. Honestly, if it’s going to be cold and rainy… I’d just prefer snow or ice. At least that would be interesting. Of course… some folks think I’m crazy. I say, to each their own!
Yes, it’s been more than a week since my last post. <sigh> Sometimes that just happens. I had my second full dose of Ocrevus last Tuesday (Guessing that was the 9th) and am just now feeling up to doing some writing. “Why?”, you ask? “What happened?”, you ask? Well… let me tell you! 🙂
It was a rainy, dark night and the house creaked with the wind… wait! Wrong story! 🙂
Actually, it’s pretty easy thing. I had my second dose of Ocrevus. It goes like this…. Last Tuesday, I got up, drove my daughter to school and then my wife and I headed to the hospital for my infusion. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but my infusion center is at the local hospital, which is relatively close to home so travel is no biggee. Anyway, my wife drops me off as no visitors are allowed, I check into the center and the process starts.
The process is just that.. a routine. I sat down in the chair I was scheduled to spend the next 5-10 hours in, and then…. had blood drawn, took two benadryl, a pepcid AC, had an IV hook-up, intravenous steroids (Solumedrol) and then… finally… the bag of Ocrevus was hung on the IV post and things really got under way! Hooray! 🙂 The only weird part of the routine this time around was the blood draw. For some reason my doctor wanted a LOT of tests done, so they took 12 big tubes of blood. The nurses joked that I might need a transfusion to replace what was taken. Good times!
Fortunately, I had no allergic reactions to the infusion so they were able to move things along pretty quickly. My first half-dose of Ocrevus took about 9 hours as I had a slight reaction (Itchy throat, scalp, etc.) and they gave me intravenous benadryl and slowed down the Ocrevus drip. I guess my body is getting used to things as it only took about three and half hours to get through the bag. Very nice! It’s not that I mind being in the infusion center, but even though I enjoy reading… sitting in a chair for that long with no real distractions can definitely be a bit boring. It is what it is!
After the infusion was done, my youngest son came to pick me up from the hospital as my wife had a conference call. Totally fine. I felt fine, there were no issues… so no biggee. I tried to remember to drink a lot of water when I got home as you need to flush the steroids out of your system as soon as possible… then just took a nap. Good times.
The day after the infusion the steroids kicked in. What I mean by this is… and I was told steroids are the cause of this by my doctors office… I was irritable, exhausted, dizzy, weak, shaky and, in general, just felt like crap. My last infusion resulted in two or three days of feeling the steroid blues, but for some reason… this time things have just dragged on… and on…and on. At least that’s how it has seemed to me.
So…. today is Tuesday the 16th, I am one week post infusion and still feeling a bit weak and shaky. A full week of feeling like this… it sucks. Best way to say it. I am definitely feeling a bit better, so am fairly confident things are related to the infusion and not another exacerbation or MS Flare-up… whatever you want to call it. I’ll just be a bit more aware of how I’m feeling to make sure I don’t need to call the doctor to see if something else might be up. Guess I’ll know in the next day or two. 🙂
Anyway…. 🙂 I am glad to have the infusion over and done with! Six months until the next one as long as nothing interesting happens!
That’s it for today! Think I’m going to hit the nearest chair and chill for a bit. 🙂 I’ll post over the weekend or early next week to let you know how things are going!
Stay warm!
Steve
