I dont know about bravery. I do know I have been having some nasty side effects, and I was concerned that it was from the copaxone. I have become extremely exhausted because I havent been sleeping at night, due to the heat spikes, and the night sweats. I wake drenched in sweat, and roasting. I have bizarre dreams, and you can only go so long with no rest before it wears you razor thin. My eyes have become so dry the eye surgeon put plugs in my tear ducts to prevent what moisture is there, from escaping. my skin is blotchy, rashy, and psorasis has reared its ugly head. I was running out of places to shoot. between the lumps, and the fat destruction, I was having to shoot between lumps. my heart races, and my anxiety was on an all time high. many of these things are listed as side effects from the copaxone.

lack of sleep, or rest will drag you down quickly. now that I have slept for a few days, with pleasant dreams, instead of weird, far out things, I have restored my cup of energy. I think that in itself has been so valueable. I havent had any night sweats in days, or night heat events. I was reaching a point that I was convinced that my body was screaming at me that I had reached my copaxone limit, and get off it. Now that I have been off it a week, and have gotten some sleep, I am getting a more level headed view of what is going on. I am keeping a good journal

I had this huge laundry list of side effect complaints, but now that I am off of the stuff, I find its only relieve a few of my big list items. Sleep is HUGE! dry eyes have made my world miserable. my wonky vision was troubling. was it dry eyes? side effects? optic nueritis? or side effects from another med? I have found good relief without the copaxone. I can actually wake up and blink at night. So, my list of like 20 or so complaints, led me to want to take a break. I am finding only 4 or 5 things being fixed by stopping the Copaxone. While they are big things, its not the huge pile up I expected.

I still have another week to go. Week one was about allowing the copaxone to wash out of my system, and get back to baseline, and this week is about seeing what other symptoms now correct themselves without the copaxone. The DH is convinced that I was going to magically find myself cured of all of the weirdness to just stop the C. I guess I was. Either way, this next week will give me a truer picture of what is going on. Then IF I go back to copaxone, I could see what symptoms return with the return of the drugs.

Sleep..blessed sleep. refreshing, uninterupted, dry sleep. that has been blessed. I needed that more than anything else. lets see what this week brings.