Day 4 Thursday 17 September 2015_the real day of the rash

I was up early from the ward noise (I’m not actually sure that I even slept much), blood was taken around 06:00 as usual, I just hoped that my blood results would be remaining stable, wish I could have seen the results for my own interest but I was too shy to ask.

Day 4 was the first day without methylprednisolone prior to the start of the Lemtrada infusion, because of this the doctors decided I should have IV hydrocortisone just before starting the Lemtrada and at the end of the 4 hour infusion to stop the rash from erupting again. I knew this was quite a lot of medication, but I was kind of happy for the doctors heading down the cautious route.

Today I had a record early start time for the Lemtrada infusion, starting at 10:26. Half an hour into the infusion I got a mild headache which only lasted 30 minutes. Not much to note, just sitting around with not much happening, my poor mum has been talked to death, so much so that we have little to talk about still, she’s probably falling asleep at my bedside!

By 18:28 I had a number of red spots spread mainly across my arms and legs, maybe a few on my face, here are a few pictures:

I had ome IV piriton and IV hydrocortisone before I went to bed, which brought the rashes down again, but unfortunately it was just a matter of time before  it would be back.

 I went to sleep for a few hours and then woke up from having an itchy back. I briefly looked at my legs and saw that the rash has reached it's most extensive stage yet, here are a few more pictures

The rash seemed to be spreading in front of my eyes. I went to the nurses desk to show & tell the nurse who was really shocked when she saw me and she immediately called the medic on call. Again the only symptom I had was the rash. I took some chlorphenamine but quite frankly it was hardly touching it. This is my back at its worst about half an hour later:

So that was day 4, leading into day 5. Feels like a dramatic evening running into the morning, but I was OK, just extensive, impressive rash, but it was all expected so I was calm about it. I just took loads of pictures as I really wanted to show others what my rash was like. I'd tried to find pictures before I started Lemtrada but I couldn't find any so didn't really know exactly what to expect. I hope this helps people, you shouldn't be scared because of my  rash, apparently it doesn't happen the same to everyone, but just to let you know this rash wasn't such a bad experience.