Over It

The crap gap……I’m over it…….the gap, I mean……because I just got my Ocrevus infusion. (Sigh) It’s not a very clever title, is it? Maybe there’s an MS lesion on the clever title comeupwither region of my cerebellum.

I had sort of planned to have a thrilling follow up to last week’s post, but Friday’s infusion, blood work, baclofen pump refill plus dosage increase, and flu shot was a smoother process than I could have imagined, or dared to hope for. There was about an hour Saturday evening when I thought to myself, “Mr. Hofmeister, (I’m very polite when I talk to myself), you might have overdone it.”, but I was wrong…..well, about what I’d overdone anyway. Looking back, that brief unwell feeling might have more to do with the amount of Halloween candy I stole from my children than from Friday’s events. Don’t misunderstand, it wasn’t guilt gnawing at me for claiming my rightful “daddy tax” on the kid’s loot. What gnawed on me was probably the sheer amount of it I consumed.

OK, back to Friday. After my wife drove me to the hospital, I went straight to the lab for the blood draw and per my suggestion, they started an IV (since I would need one for my infusion anyway), drew blood, flushed the line and sent me on my way. I’m going to pause here to note that most of the hospital staff were wearing Halloween costumes and the phlebotomists in the lab, with one exception, were all dressed as vampires because…..well, you get it. I got the exception, a sparkly blue unicorn who whisked me in and out of the lab and coordinated everything with the infusion clinic. Hindsight being what it is, I should have taken this as a sign for the rest of the day.

My neurologist, (who was dressed as a doctor), was waiting for me at the entrance to the infusion clinic and whisked me, (there was a lot of efficient whisking Friday), to a procedure room and refilled my baclofen pump so quickly that I didn’t get my phone out in time to take a dramatic needle in the belly picture for this post like I had planned on. Here’s a very non-dramatic, bandage on the belly picture instead.

He assessed my spacticity, checked my muscle tone, inquired about physical therapy, and upped my baclofen dosage by 10%. We chatted about recent MS research, my recent bout with Covid, and etc and then I was off to infusion.

Once there, I transferred to a recliner, wrapped up in my infusion afghan, was premedicated and then infused. I was cleared for the fast rate prior to the last infusion, so including the observation time after, I was done in about 3 1/2 hours. I got my flu shot at the clinic right beside the parking deck and we went home.

Having my arm hair pulled out when they removed the Tegaderm dressing over the IV site was literally the worst part of the entire day. So much for a thrilling, “here’s what happened to me”, post. I guess there’s always next time.

P.S. I’m not dissapointed in the least.