@Leeb 

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Leeb

First Ocrevus description

In case it's of interest to anyone, here's my diary of a first Ocrevus infusion. The day before, I was advised to drink a lot of water. Being hydrated helps the nurses find a vein. Got there at 8:20 for an 8:30 appointment, and was ushered straight through to a comfy chair. My blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen saturation of blood, and temperature were all recorded and I was given two paracetamol and one cetrizine (anti-histamine) tablets to take. Ten minutes later, a nurse fitted a canula, tested it, and an anti-inflammatory steroid was infused. Next, a saline 'flush' was administered, which was explained as cleaning the pipes (plastic tubes) to make sure all the drug ends up in the patient (me, in this case). These took about an hour. Once that was done, there was a bit of a wait (30 minutes?) before the main event. There is an abundance of caution. The diluted total volume is 300ml. The initial infusion rate is 30ml per hour, which is increased by another 30ml/hr every half hour (so 30/60/90/120/150/180). Every half hour, the same vitals were checked. The nurse was clear that a sore throat or a headache were the most common side effects, but anything adverse should be reported so they can throttle back on the infusion, or stop in severe cases. I had no side effects, fortunately but because of my mobility issues (need crutches), when I needed to go to the loo, they had to stop the infusion and 'unplug' me, which added time. Other patients who needed the loo, but with better mobility, simply wheeled the IV stand to the toilet with them. The final stage was another saline flush of the ocrevus lines. This one took about 40 minutes at 180ml/hr, so was probably about 120ml of saline. And that was it. It was a long day. I arrived at 8:20 and was finished at about 15:55. Apparently, the standard, 6-monthly infusions are quicker and start at 40ml/hr (40/80/120/160/180?) and take about 3 hrs. Not the most exciting story (TL;DR - I sat for 8 hours), but hope it will be helpful to someone.
@Jsojd

I am having my first one tomorrow . That is so helpful as I was wondering how the day would go . I think I am focussing too much on the side effects .

@Leeb

@Jsojd Good luck tomorrow! Fear of the unknown is big one and I'm glad the post helped. It is very controlled so they'd be all over any (unlikely) side effects. There are reasons it got licensed I should have added to bring a book. You may get chatting to other people, but it is a lot of sitting around!