I'm not laughing..tehe..but, i was wondering what happens when your brain throws up..

I know....MS, that's what!!!

You remember those anti-drug commercials?

ya know.. the "this is your brain on drugs" commercials?

This is my brain on MS ....

You are a young woman. I have two sons in their 20s. I would go through hell and high water to make sure they treated with DMD's if they were DXed with MS. I have one relative who declined treatments and she is not faring well at all. This is one forum and you need to look closely at the opinions and advice you receive.

I firmly believe that Dr. Mercola is a carnival barker type of doctor playing on patient's fear of conventional medicine, this after many years of research after being diagnosed.

I take Copaxone, the least toxic of all of the DMD's, and I am very careful about my health too. I am 53 years old and still working full time and walking, etc... I attribute a lot of that to my extreme health consciousness over the past three decades but when I was DXed with MS I was very anxious to begin treatment, especially considering the health of my close relative with MS.

I'm thankful that we have treatments now. Please reconsider and at least apply for help from Shared Solutions to get Copaxone on a program for uninsured. You are worth it.

Thank you ewizabeth!

I will definitely reconsider.

I have been thinking about it (Copaxone) the past two days.

I think I am going to make an appt with my neuro and talk to HIM instead of his loopy nurses.

I was considering switching neuros but they all work together here in my town, so I feel that will screw me over to switch.

So maybe if I talk to my doc and tell him how I truly feel about Rebif, we can find some middle ground.

I don't want to continue putting toxins in my body, but I am rather young and that does concern me. I've got decades ahead of me with this disease and I do not want it going completely haywire on me this early in life, for that will make everyday living even more difficult than it already is.

I haven't taken any of this weeks Rebif and I'm going to be honest with you.. I feel pretty good. I'm in a flare right now, so I can't feel my hands, right leg, right side abdomen, and having to walk very slow and make sure I pay very close attention to each step, but my overall health is good, I don't feel the 'toxic crappy' feeling like when I take the Rebif, So I just feel that this is my body telling me thanks for not putting that toxicity in me!

You have to do what you truly believe is the right thing for you. Only you can decide that.

I would definitely speak to my Neuro and get his advice. Ultimately, you're the one who's going to be taking the meds. He can only advise you of the pros and cons.

I hope you're one of the lucky ones who can tolerate Copaxone. I couldn't. That's why I chose the route I'm taking. But I tried all the conventional treatments before I said "no more".

You're in my prayers, AynaDee. I know it's a difficult decision and not one that's made lightly or in a rush. Whatever you decide we'll be behind you.

And I appreciate that SO MUCH Kitty!

I have a feeling that I am going to have issues on Copaxone as well. I just have that stupid sensitive body type

But it wouldn't be fair if I didn't TRY the least toxic DMD before I say no more would it?

I just want to be normal again, and I guess my way of thinking is... I'm going to have this disease forever, and it's going to make me feel abnormal quite frequently, so why add drugs to make me even more abnormal? PLUS I feel that the drugs make my MS really angry, and sometimes I can't tell if the symptom I am experiencing is MS, drugs, or MS acting up BECAUSE of the drugs.

such a confusing process this all is, understanding what I am putting into my body and what it is doing to me, and what direction do I go from here.

I feel like I am on a road, and I just got to the fork, now, what path do I take?

I feel like the path to my left (which is the path to stay on a DMD) is dark. and the path to my right (which is off of DMD) is lit.

But then what if the path that's lit is misleading and once I get halfway down the lit path it turns black.

ha!
THIS IS A GAME OF TRICKERY!

I figured it out!

It's hard......and that's an understatement! Nobody knows which is the best route to take....including the doctors.....but all we can do is try them all and then stick with the one that we feel most comfortable with.

MS is such a mystery of a disease. It would be so much easier if we all had the same symptoms and there was one medicine that would help all of us. But, that's not the case.

It took me several years to finally get my own personal treatment plan honed in to what I'm doing now. Lots of trial and error. Lots of money spent which I didn't have.

I know you're anxious to get on something that helps your condition and doesn't make you feel terrible in the meantime. If you're planning to talk to your Neuro about switching to another treatment I'd suggest arming yourself with information about whatever meds you're willing to try. If your doctor is willing to prescribe LDN here is a website that gives lots of info about it. www.lowdosenaltrexone.org
Let him know you've done your research and know about the drugs.

Good luck!

Hey Ayna. I tried rebif for 2-3 months and said enough. I no longer had the side effects (take at night and sleep it off) but Copaxone which I was on 3yrs prior had ZERO side effect, it just stopped working on me. I went to Tysabri. MS is still progressing on Ty + the dozen supps i take but i'd never go back to injections. Infuse every 28 days = easy. Zero sides from Ty for me. I swam 20 laps when i got home from last infusion.

Will someone please inform me what Copaxone "does"? I didn't take the interferons (I
guess it is an Interferon?) when my only dx was MS; I did the Swank diet and it was enough to give me a pretty good but anxiety filled life. I took Interferon (that being its name) for Polycythemia Vera and had to stop due to severe side effects (rash, itching increasing, neuropathy in feet increasing, breathing at night not good). But I knew what it was supposed to do, that is, cut back on platelets in my blood, which were over a million.
So what is Copaxone's action? I know I can google it, but sometimes I find the answers on google to be to "broad" and too concerned with covering the whole waterfront of answers rather than giving a specific one. Thanks.