Dizzy’s Cladribine Adventures – Part 2

As we have now completed the first year of our cladribine treatment, Dizzy thought it would be a good time to do a little update on our adventures since the our first week (which you can read all about here). 🙂

Week 2

For a little recap: Cladribine is given over two years. In the first year you have two round of tablets: the first round over week 1, and the second round over week 4. In year two, this process is then repeated.:) 

We finished out second week of tablets in October. And even though Dizzy and I still got in a little anxious about this round round, it turned out to be even less eventful than the first week. Nothing really happened. We didn’t even get the little sicky feeling that we got in the first week.

We did get hit with the sleepyness the day after we finished them though (which is what happened after week 1), and that went on for a good week.

Blood tests

At the three month mark (from taking your first tablet) you are required to have a blood test to see how your immune system and white blood cells have reacted to the medication. For this reason, it’s useful to know what your levels start of at, as it means you can then compare yourself! 🙂 Especially if you’re like me and like to know exactly what’s going on. My white blood cells (lymphocytes) were 1.4 at the start of treatment, and had dropped to 1.09 at the 3 month mark. I must admit I was expecting a bigger drop. I had been super sleepy that week (Dizzy and I had been snoozing away for 16 hours a day!), but we were also getting a new kitchen – so I think that might have had an impact. 

In immune system terms, this drop is good, as it means I still have a normal size immune system (just at the lower end), which means my body can still fight of any colds and flus quite well. But I can’t help but wonder if a smaller drop means that I still have lots of naughty cells. The tablets work by knocking out part of your immune system in the hopes of getting rid of misbehaving ones and then producing friendly new ones. 🙂 So smaller drop, smaller amount of mischievous ones removed?

Having said this, it is a two year treatment, and my MS team doesn’t seem to think it will make a difference. Just Dizzy and I have been wondering. 🙂

What’s next

The last couple of weeks we have been really, really sleepy, so we are just pottering along quietly until, hopefully, we start to have a little more energy. This fatigue is normal with this medication at this stage. And we have booked in for an extra little blood test in a couple of weeks, just to see what’s going on, and if there is any change since the last week.

All-in-all though, the experience has been pretty easy! And we are still so happy about not having to do anymore jabby jabs. 🙂

Have you started any new medication recently, and how are you finding them? xxx