MS Treatment

I apologize for not posting sooner. I guess I figured that things have settled down and that everyone knew what was going on... Here is the update for those of you who I haven't seen: My doctor has started me on a treatment called Avonex. It is an intramuscular injection that I give myself once a week. I can inject in my thigh, or Matt or my mom can inject in my shoulder (not that that will ever happen!). This treatment does NOT treat my symptoms, which means that it will not directly improve the numbness in my body. It treats the progression of the disease and lengthens the amount of time between relapses. Once the damage is done in the nervous system (in my case, in my brain), it will stay damaged, which is why we cannot "fix" the damage. There are other types of treatment: steroid treatment is used to speed up the healing process if you are having severe symptoms-this is not used often as it is not good for your body, or they will also do specific treatments for symptoms. My symptoms (numbness) are considered "minor" and not severe enough to treat. Compared to other symptoms, I have the good end of the deal for sure.

My first injection was preceded by a training with a nurse who showed me how to do everything and helped me practice and eventually do the injection. I did my first injection in my numb leg and didn't feel a thing. Three hours later I started feeling achy and could tell my temperature was rising. About two hours after that, I definitely had a fever. I went to bed at that point, after taking a sleeping pill, and had an awful night fighting the fever and trying to stay asleep. I woke up the next morning feeling fine.

My second injection went much better. I waited until about 7:00 to give myself the shot and I pumped a ton of water into my body. Like hundreds of ounces of water, gatorade and propel before and after my shot. We had friends over, and when they left around 10:00, I still wasn't really feeling anything. At 10:30 I took some Nyquil, which helps me sleep better than the other medicine I took last week, and went to bed at 11:00 still feeling pretty good. I slept fine and woke up feeling good! I was pretty tired the next day, but what a difference!

My shot and the two needles. I of course only use one needle, but I have a prescription needle that is different than the one it comes with...


My needle is the smaller of the two. My doctor prescribed it for me. It is 1/4 inch shorter and a bit thinner than the other needle.