You might be asking, why does it matter that I’m taking Ocrevus and I have a cold? It’s important to remember what Ocrevus does. Ocrevus depletes B lymphocytes, a white blood cell in our immune system. Ocrevus is an autoimmune suppressing drug. Something as simple as a cold, may not have the same effect on me as it does the person I caught the cold from. For me, this cold has put me in an psuedo-MS attack. A pesuedo-attack is defined as: A period when old symptoms get worse or new symptoms appear. pseudo-relapse. Temporary symptoms triggered by heat, infection, or another reason. These can be mistaken for a relapse.

This cold I have does not consist of me sneezing all that much. It is weighing down in my chest. I’m not coughing it up yet but I had a few periods I felt like I was choking which brings me to a post I wrote about serious MS symptoms in the respiratory tract.

Multiple sclerosis serious symptoms-respitory issues

The thick phlegm gets caught in my throat and I don’t have enough power, for lack of a better word, to move it up and out. It is like my worst fear since I wrote that blog, what would happen if I get bronchitis? Well guess what another side effect of Ocrevus…OCREVUS increases your risk of getting upper respiratory tract infections, lower respiratory tract infections, skin infections, and herpes infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have an infection or have any of the following signs of infection including fever, chills, a cough that does not go away, or signs of herpes (such as cold sores, shingles, or genital sores). These signs can happen during treatment or after you have received your last dose of OCREVUS. If you have an active infection, your healthcare provider should delay your treatment with OCREVUS until your infection is gone. 

This cold has left me completely fatigued, weak and really almost dizzy. My head has been pounding for 3 days. It is playing havoc on all my MS symptoms thus I used the term pseudo-attack. I’ve been in bed by 8 and feeling horrible as soon as my body moves. I had two falls since I got sick both were when I was holding on to something. Yesterday’s fall could have been so bad if I didn’t turn my body slightly or maybe luckily as I fell that I was shaking from being so scared of how close I was to smashing my face. I was walking with my rollator too so I wasn’t unaided just off balance. All this from one person having a cold and my mistake of not taking more careful precautions to protect myself.  I’d say this topic is a big deal and I give caution to anyone on any of the immunosuppressant drugs to pay attention and be careful. A common cold isn’t common to us!!