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.

Ayna,

Try not to predict that Copaxone will not work with you please. I am highly allergic to many food and environmental and medicine products but Copaxone works for me. Do not make preconceived decisions based on the experiences of a few others. There are many, many people who have been taking Copaxone successful for ten years or more. I have taken it over three years total and I am very happy for what it has done for me.

Don't judge it by the first six months either, because if you're like me, you'll have pretty bad skin reactions until you become accustomed to the shots, locations and how to treat the day after, etc...

See your doctor and talk to the Shared Solutions nurses regarding injections once you start. Remember, "time is brain" and if you can hold off this disease, you will preserve function in brain and spine and those affect every move you make and every breath of life. Don't focus on the shot itself but the long term result.

Copaxone takes AT LEAST 6 months to start to work. it took a full year for me. PLEASE dont make assumptions about this one. most of the folks on copaxone find its just fine and dont really have issues with it. I have tons of allergies, and I am a sensitive girl. it was on the 3rd year that copaxone started really bugging me. It was the 3rd year that the dents started happening, and that I started loosing mental clarity and struggling. I had NO idea it even was the copaxone because i had been on it 3 years and no worries, but as the 3rd year rolled on, the side effects started to mount. My stomach stopped, my pancreas went crazy, my skin became reddened, and thick and dry, and my psoraisis went crazy. It was a process rather than a jump. I didnt wake up one morning and go EEEWWW Look what happened. it was hour by hour, day by day, and it took literally 3 years. The last year I simply watched the side effects list grow. Many MDs told me this couldnt be part of the C profile. It just doesnt happen. It wasnt till I spent a month in the hospital and they withdrew ALL my meds and gave them back one by one before we figured out C was an issue.

Anxiety is a huge part of having MS. I hope you will speak to your MD about getting some anxiety relief. I will simply worry myself to peices. All the what ifs that march thru my head are amazing. So, for now, lets look at your anxiety before we look at the copaxone. I hope you feel better.

You can also get your D3 from the sun as long as you don't put on sunscreen. My levels were low so I am trying the natural approach after being on a scrip that only raised the levels a few points.

Gabriella

You know your body and you shouldn't feel bad about your family's reaction to going off Rebif. I wish for you the best on your natural supplements and eating right.

I stopped Tysabri in April of this year. My neuro also took me off Baclofen and Flexeril because he said he thought they were making me tired and sleepy during the day. I do feel more awake without them, and my leg spasms are livable. My MS did get worse after stopping the TY, but I've started on physical therapy to help my weak legs and arms. I've been taking MS (chair) Yoga for over two years now, and it has definitely made a difference.

I take:
Centrum Silver,
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin D3
Vitamin E

Plus I take Klonopin for sleep and Celexa for depression.

Wiz is right! I too am highly sensitive to medications as well as being loaded down with allergies, but I did not have trouble with Copaxone either. I tolerated it very well. While I had a side effect, I did not realize it until my prescription ran out and I was off of it. I am thinking of trying LDN but if my new neuro believes that this would not be beneficial to me, I will go back on Copaxone. Of all the DMD's it is said to be the one of most tolerable as you do not get the fluish side effects. In the 5 years I was on it, I only had 3 bad post injection reaction. However, I knew what it was and knew it would pass. All three happened when I injected in my lower thigh area where there is little fat. Hitting those fatty areas is important and that's why I loved doing my stomach and hips the best. That's where all my fat is and I had less site reactions there too.

It does take a while to take effect but it does work, at least for me it did. After 1 year of serial flares, the flares lessened and so did the severity of them. Of note, my prescription ran out in December and not sure if it has anything to do with not being on the Copaxone, but I had a flare from hell after getting strep throat in the beginning of December. It could just be a coincidence but I am still struggling through that flare with all sorts of neurological stuff going on.

So, as Wiz said, don't be quick to judge it based on others experiences. It is worth a try and you may find that it actually helps you and calms things down.

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.

I was told it "fools" the anitbodies into attaching to it instead of the meyelin, which would reduce destruction of that tissue.

I have been a good girl and am taking my injections again. I was castigated by my loving DIL for not doing meds. It's not fair to my family just because I don't like injecting. It really doesn't affect me in terms of side effects; I just get tired of being reminded daily that I have something "not right" with me...

Thanks for the explanation, Debbie D!