So my infusion is coming up and I’m waiting on authorization. I’m switching back to Rituxan hopefully because I personally feel slightly safer on the drug. However I can only imagine what this will do with the authorization of the drug. Ironically my last infusion my pharmacy had Rituxan on the approved list but not Ocrevus. It took my a while to get Ocrevus approved. Now that I’m switching again to a drug that is technically not approved for MS I’m sure it isn’t going to be smooth. I was supposed to get a call with an infusion date and time last Wednesday. That didn’t happen.

Why my switch? Rituxan has been around for over 15 years. The main difference in the two drugs is one is a chemical antibody and one is a human antibody based drug. A while ago I wrote a blog comparing the two drugs https://multipleexperiences.org/2017/06/28/ocrelizumab-ocrevus-versus-rituximab-rituxan/. For me I felt safer with a drug that has a history. Since my doctor started me on Rituxan before switching to Ocrevus (which was done because of insurance reasons), she had no problems putting me back on the drug.

Now I’m just waiting for the date from the infusion clinic. This is and always has been the more difficult part. I’m sure this time won’t be any different. I will start making my calls today to see where we are in the authorization process and try to keep things moving along. This will become my full time job for the next few weeks.