For those that are interested I just completed my 2nd part of my 1st dose of Ocrevus. Incidentally, at my apt there was another MS person on the same schedule as myself and we talked at the end. It's odd/funny how you can find kindred spirits anywhere even at a hospital infusion center! If i'm lucky i'll see them at my 6th month treatment.
Anyway, the infusion went like the first one except this time I was not trying to be overly ambitious and planned to sleep/use my laptop once I was up. I got the steroids, Benadryl, Tylenol and was ready to my dose. They weren't super busy that morning so they started shortly after my 30 minutes of "cooking" before infusion. I found that I was asleep/in a haze for most of the infusion until the last 45 minutes which means I didn't get enough sleep the night before but it was good. The thing everyone that gets an infusion is that they check your blood pressure every 30 minutes during treatment so it's not like the sleep is solid.
I did not have any reactions this time and was able to only have the first dose of Benadryl where the last time I had 3 does and reactions. I did have a mild headache later but that wasn't as wretched as the 1st time. Otherwise, i'm still feeling good and happy to not feel like 'road-kill' pre-Ocrevus.
I helped my husband with a garage sale after getting home and took it fairly easy. After both infusions I had a hearty meal & cookie (i seem to need the quick sugar/fix afterwards) and a heavy protein laden meal for dinner.
Drank a ton of water that afternoon but not enough before my infusion. I will have to keep in mind that i need to drink MORE water the day before. I find that when I used to give blood (i'm very sad over this) and now with these infusions that having a higher blood volume in my body helps me process but again this is me. So I'll be sure to boost my water intake the day or two prior to my treatment.
The next one is supposed to be about an 1.5 hours longer than my second infusion. The volume is the full 600ml but they 'push' it faster as you respond to the drug when they check you every 30 minutes. So it's not double the time but your body has been exposed and they speed up or slow down the infusion based on reaction. You can also read about this in the packed from Ocrevus as well. The ½ doses tend to be 30ML and increase vs the full dose of of 40ml (I believe that's the doeses but check the sheet and read it again for side effects the night before as they could be different.)
So far so good and now to get my but into an exercise routine... baby steps to my new normal.