The last wait

It’s been a long time coming, nine months to be exact, but finally I am here in hospital ready to start Lemtrada tomorrow.

It’s not lost on me that I could have gestated a baby in the time I’ve waited for my lymphocytes to recover from the bashing that two and a half years of Tecfidera gave them. In the end I was given a helping hand by the hospital changing the lymphocyte threshold they set for patients to start Lemtrada, because apparently there are lots of people like me doing this long wait.

So I am sitting in a hospital bed, in a room of my own, typing one-handed so I don’t displace the cannula in the back of my hand that tomorrow will deliver powerful white blood cell-zapping drugs into my veins. I’ve had blood tests, an ECG, and a pregnancy test (!), it’s ten to midnight and the ward outside is quiet. I’ve been putting off going to bed because I’m scared of being unable to sleep, but I’m tired and I have an eye mask, earplugs, lavender oil and rescue remedy to help me drift off so I’m going to give it a go.

Bring on the morning, and hopefully a treatment that can put my MS to sleep for the foreseeable future.

• The listeria diet
• Limbo land
• Lemtrada: Round one, day one
• Lemtrada: Round one, day two
• Lemtrada: Round one, day three
• Lemtrada: Round one, day four
• Lemtrada: Round one, day five
• Checking in: Three months after Lemtrada round one
• Lemtrada: Round two, day 0
• Lemtrada: Round two, day 1
• Lemtrada: Round two, day 2
• Lemtrada: Round two, day 3
• Lemtrada: My top tips