no one can walk your path for you. MS is like a finger print. its so individual. What cripples you, may blind me. Some folks do great and last a long time with big gun treatments and others fail off each and every one of them. You wont know how each affects you till you try.

My story is that I went on Betaseron. carefully chosen after much research. A few months in, I set a clinic record for liver enzymes and was removed from interferon drugs. I was switched to copaxone which was very easy to take. Took about a full year before I noticed it was really working, where as the interferon stuff works quick. After about 3 years I noticed after each shot I felt horrible. I got sicker and sicker. Then each shot would leave a dent. My psoriasis went crazy! I couldn't think, I didn't want to eat, I was losing my hair, and felt just horrible. I begged for about a year to be released. After one year of begging and 4 years of being on it, I released myself. it took a couple of months, but I knew after how much better I was feeling it was the right choice.

I eat clean (the makers diet) I exercise (walk 3 to 5 miles a day) and I make sure to keep every MD appointment. I only take steroids for the optic nerve stuff, and yet this past December I had a HUGE attack that landed me in the big girl hospital. IVSM for 5 days, and yet my optic nerves still atrophied and curled. I left with 20/400 vision. Would this has happened if I was still on the DMD? Who knows?! and I cant beat myself up over it. I was truly miserable on it, and was willing to take this risk.

Please do your home work. If YOU choose to go DMD free, please know there are many that do. DMDs have a huge rate of folks walking away because they hate it, but others stick with it, terrified of having attack after attack. It is supposed to make you have LESS attacks, and if you get an attack, its suppose to make it less severe. The disease will still march forward, but if that drug works for you, its at a slower rate.

its a hard decision. Read everything you can read. Gluten free, makers diet, Swank diet and vegan diets seem to be popular choices. Some folks choose Avonex cause its only once a week instead of everyday. its YOUR body, and in the end only YOU can make choices for it. Please expect others to slather you with their opinion about it, and be prepared to stand up and say "this is what I choose"

Good luck no matter what you choose, but dont choose out of fear, please choose out of education, research and digging into what is best for your life. ((hugs))