Thirteen months ago I was diagnosed with relapsing multiple sclerosis. This is a form of MS that has episodes when I feel well and my body is essentially healthy and periods of time when myelin, the substance that coats my nerves and brain, destroys itself.
The problem with destroying the myelin itself is that the nerves and the brain are then basically exposed. Then they develop a scar that interferes with nerve function. In my case, because it is new and relatively mild, it means that I have problems with my balance, and sometimes a feeling in my right leg. Last summer, it also indicated that I have something in my right eye. That was cleared up.
Although there is no known cure for MS or a way to repair the damage in the active disease, modern medicine has been able to produce drugs to reduce the occurrence of relapses. The idea is that if the disease is not active, it cannot harm the nervous and the symptoms are not worse
That’s why my neurologist recommended Avonex therapeutic principles for me. Avonex is the brand name of one of the types of interferon beta therapy designed to reduce the number of relapses. In clinical studies they seem to cause a significant decrease in them.
I wasn’t thrilled with this idea, especially since it involves just getting shots of interferon, lots and lots of shots. I discussed the available options with my doctor and Avonex seemed like a reasonable option. Other drugs required more frequent shots, such as two to three days or a huge seat. side effects Avonex doesn’t sound bad. The most common side effects are nausea, headache, malaise, and the main symptoms are similar to the flu.
To be honest, none of that sounded as different as the thought of having the needle dangle once a week, as we wished we could ‘take a course’.
Let me begin with what appears to be good. I haven’t had any new symptoms and the ones I have that are related to MS don’t seem to be getting any worse. Certain things, like double vision, have been revealed. And, that’s all I can convince myself to do every week to make it through another day. Shot day, which used to be known as Thursday, is nothing short of pure hell, especially because it is so vague.
First, he wants to have a learning process. Because it requires weekly injections, the drug company offers training so patients can learn to inject themselves. Don’t I hate needles that I remember? I have often told people that the worst part of child birth was not the worst part. they ask me to prick them with a needle.
The option of self-injection seemed like a bad idea, so I worked out the plan later. I worked in a doctor’s office. I could convince someone to shoot me there, right? That’s right.
I have, however, taken a course in case the day comes when I want to inject myself. I hope it never comes to that, because my fear of needles hasn’t gotten better. I sat through an appointment with a very nice home health nurse who tried to calm my fears and teach me all the safe ways to handle my medication. I became an expert at mixing medicine and prepared to fill the needle for my first injection.
That’s when I learned without a doubt that I never wanted to give anyone a shot. Always. To fill the needle, I simply had to take the cap off the needle and drop it into a small bowl of medication. But I moved so much that I picked up the miter of the needle, and scraping the needle on the fleshy part of the inside of my hand, the needle pricked me.
I contaminated the needle, and wounded myself with foul burns and punctures. Oh, he also bent the needle. He clearly wasn’t meant to give me a shot.
To my doctor and my husband and everyone else who insisted that I go ahead with the Avonex therapy, this was a sign, and I clearly did not think I should take this medicine. No one believed me.
However, they agreed that if I could find someone else willing to give me a shot, it would be a better idea than trying to do it myself. My friend and Shawn wanted to take on the job together. For more than a year now he has faithfully given me my shot, except when it is struck. That week, I got a public health nurse to do for me.
When the first trauma, and only, attempts at self-injection, I started getting injections. This created a whole new problem when dealing with side effects.
Avonex advisors recommend taking the medication close to bedtime, so you may be able to sleep through side effects. They say to take your injection at a time when it will be less disruptive to your life.
This is what I mean.
It might be possible if I could inject myself, but that wasn’t an option for me. And well in those first weeks if I wanted to sleep through sedes. to sleep for a week. Within an hour of the shot even now I have a pounding headache. I can manage this quite a bit, premeditated and premeditated by the pharmacist about half an hour before I take the shot. But at first this is intolerable.
Before starting Avenex, she never had migraines. The first two months I was on the drug, they came like clockwork, about 2 p.m. in the first two days after the onset of daily intensity. My neurologist put me on an additional drug, Topamax, to fight the migraines, but I was resistant. I hate the idea of taking medication to fix the side effects of another drug. He also advised me to take medication to fight fatigue, but I refused on that one.
So, for the first two months, I ate Excedrin migraine medicine like candy and slept from the time I went to work on Thursday nights until the morning before work on Friday. Then, on Friday nights after work, I’ll fall into bed and sleep for 14 to 16 hours. It was hard because I decided to do it this way, but I did it.
After a few months, I was able to stop the Topamax completely and taper off the migraine medicine too much against the magnanimity.
I also find that I have an insatiable thirst after taking my Avonex. My boss laughs that he often has a bottle of water and a bottle of any caffeinated drink (helps caffeine with a headache) at my table and would become a “two-penny drinker”.
Eating on the day of the shooting also became a challenge. It wasn’t that I was nauseous before I ate. No, I would be hungry and feel that: “If I could eat something, I would feel much better.” That feeling was always wrong. In the end, after many experiments, I found myself eating a moderate but very low fat meal before I got my shots. I feel better.
Fatty, heavy foods always made the side effects worse.
And even though I was always thirsty and drank tons of water after my shot, the side effects I had were certainly not common, it was a constant battle with cranberry-juice drink cranberry juice, and many of those days are shot around the day. I drink about half a gallon of the stuff between Wednesday and Friday every week.
After a year of consistent shots, I find these side effects are much less intense than they were initially, but if I mess up, my body reminds me very strongly.
For example, last month, Shawn, my broker, was on vacation, and he closed the last day late. For the first time in months, headaches are back and in migraine style.
Another time, I forgot to warm my makeup to room temperature before the keyboard. Avonex must be stored in the refrigerator if it is to be kept for a long time, but the pharmaceutical company recommends warming the release to room temperature before taking the lead.
I found out what. First is the shot that burns, so that wherever it is shot, it hurts worse. Second, the side effect hit me like a ton of eight sides. 3 to a.m. I went to bed on Thursday and slept most of the weekend. I had a raging migraine for two days. I felt like crap most of the week. Dragging myself up the base of the stairs to do the laundry became a daunting task.
I am currently taking my medicine.
We have also learned to reduce the pain of the injection by changing the needle. Using pure needles that are in medication in the medication relieves the pain and the irritation at the injection site is not removed.
The injection site is still a bit sensitive, as the medication is so caustic that it causes tiny muscle tremors around the injection site for about 15 minutes after my shot, but even those seem to lessen with time.
All in all, Avonex has brought some saving graces to my life, eating schedules and sleeping patterns, but as time goes by, it gets better. . And it appears that he worked. When the second option is losing my nervous system, I’ll take the headache-inducing shots any day.
