its a slow process, keep a journel what you did what shot did and where it was given to get some insight, as your compile the info in your data banks you will get it all down, one step at a time, step one, take care of yourself and dont stress, step two will follow as you need it to, as long as you keep step one in mind a lot, you'll do well

thanks Frank! I'm hoping ti becomes part of my routine and I don't have to think so much about what I'm doing, where I'm doing it and how I'm injecting.

it will and unfortuantely, in some ways but in other ways its the new me I inject daily and accept it. wouldnt be bad if ya got a headrush with it or something lol at least I dont get sick, so that helps. its new and your in uncharted waters, thas why using this site you will find addicting adn helpful, we have all taken what little bit of a map we had in our possesion and charted new waters with this illness and still are. my latest flair took by surprise it attacked my right side of my body, which isa first, its always been left side, so even as you become use to it as dumb as that sounds. as you get use to it, another curve ball appears, all you can do is keep swing away.

Here's a suggestion for making the injections easier.

Get yourself something that you can reward yourself with after doing a shot.

I've used M&M's, Hostess Ho-Ho's, and tonight, I used my boyfriend. (get yer minds outta the gutter! ) I showed off to the boyfriend how I can do the manual injections, and he gave me a couple of nice kisses as a reward for doing my shot. (I wasnt going to do it. He bribed me )

Food rewards are not always the best reward, (it worked for my dog tho when obedience training him) but if you use M&M's, dont eat a whole pack of them. Try just eating 5 or 10 of them, or some other small arbitrary number after giving yourself a shot.

A reward is a good idea. But you are right that it has to be small. Maybe Ho-Ho's would work 3x a week after Rebif but with the copaxone every day I'd get fat!! M&Ms sounds good. Or I was thinking of Hershey's kisses.

I am still feeling annoyed by the Copaxone. It has been 2 weeks now. Everyone said there would be no symptoms except for injection site reactions. That I can handle. I moved the shot to the morning because I thought it was giving me insomnia and making me to anxious. But the morning now seems even worse after only 2 days. Sometimes I feel like my chest is tight and my mouth is dry but mostly it's a headache (like my head is in a vice grip), a buzzy caffeine feeling, and some serious brain fog. Today I just about lost it when I took my shot at 10 am, backed out of the garage at 11 am to go teach, and was so damn out of it from the C. that I just about wacked the side mirror off of the passenger side of the car. A big BAM--and now it's all broken and mangled. Like I really have the money to get this fixed? Plus it just irks me. I've never done anything like that before. I started thinking about the whole issue of quality of life v. medication. Granted this isn't as bad as Rebif because at least I can get out of bed and function but after the interferon and before I started the C. I was feeling fabulous. I think I just resent the fact that I have to have ANY symptoms at all from this medicine.

I wonder if there is anyone on this board who decided to go medication free because they couldn't tolerate the side effects of the drugs. It seems like a scary thought. I guess it's kind of a crap shoot. So is a functional quality life now (no meds) worth it even if you have more issues and more progression down the road in the future or is it better to have a semi-functional life where you tough it out with nasty side effects (with meds) but keep the MS relatively at bay to limit future problems that could be worse. But then how do you the meds will even work??

Hey Natalie!

I am a recent newcomer to Copaxone, but not to injections!

1 - DO NOT MASSAGE the shot area!!! Wait til 24 hours after shot! This is not Rebif! (did that one too!)

2- Call SS and ask them for another nurse to come out and show you how to do this manually. My nurse came out and I was instructed to do ALL my sites at 45 degrees....and to not put the needle all the way in. They need to look at you to determine that!

3- Call SS and ask for their little nifty calendar thing! I keep track where I do shots, type of reax I have and when I start a new box.

4- You couldn't get me to inject my arms for anything before....Rebif hurt there and Avonex did too. BUT I think that I have so much lovely fat in my arm that the Copaxone shot is good for me there (if you can call any of the shots good!! LOL)

5 - Click on my name, find the thread I started about Copaxone around February 2008.....I think I actually did 2 of them....you will find BIG help there!

6- The Warm compress for 5 minutes, shot, 1 minute hold cotton ball on, 1 minute cold compress is supposed to be the researched way to shot this! It doesn't work for me!

7- After box number 2....I think the reactions are different for me....they itch like crazy about day #2!!!! Benadrly cream works for me!

8- When I learned to shoot myself with Avonex. you talk about one nervous kid! I was not needle phobic, but I had a hard time poking myself! By the time they took me off that, I could give myself a shot while talking on the phone and not miss a beat! And you should see the size of that needle!!!

9- Look on the good side, if we get stung by a bee tomorrow, it won't hurt as bad as last year!!! LOL

Peace.

Is it possible that some of the problems you're having could actually be from the anxiety you're having about being diagnosed with MS along with having to do the shots every day...and not actually from the shots? I had some similar problems early in the C, and was thinking it was the C, and my neuro said that some of those symptoms could be anxiety related.

Try to calm down about giving yourself the shot. If you can get someone to come out and train you to do them manually, it might be better. I know that I was freaking out all the time whenever I had to use the autoject, and it got to the point where I didnt want to have anything to do with the C...but I kept thinking that if I didnt keep trying, that I might never continue with the shots.

So, I kept trying to use the autoject till I was getting to the point of wanting to drop the autoject onto the floor and start smashing it everytime I saw it. That was about the time I asked my dad to give me a shot or two for a couple of days. Then I asked him to show me how to inject myself. I had to have my dad sit with me when I did that for a couple of days.

The third day, I forgot to ask my dad for help before he went to bed. So, I decided to do the shot manually by myself without him around to help. I did it, and realized that it was so easy. I posted a message here that night about doing it myself. It was kind of liberating being able to do it without the "assistance" of the autoject, or having my dad there for moral support.

Last night, I showed off for my boyfriend while he was here visiting so we could watch a couple of movies together. He said that it looked a lot easier than dealing with the autoject. (I'd shown him how I did that a few times) He said that I seemed so much more calmer injecting manually than I ever did harpooning myself with the autoject.

I have no idea if the Copaxone is working for me...I've had a few episodes of weird numbness, and a new case of optic neuritis since I started. My neuro thinks all those weird numbness and the new case of ON were all pseudo-exacerbations...that I had some sort of an infection that was triggering them. I've been having issues with my teeth, and I was having infections and fevers because of that.

I'm starting to think my neuro was right. I had dental work done a few weeks ago. Just before I went to the dentist for the first bit of dental work (it's a work in progress) I think I'd developed an infection...then while having the work done, a bit of infection got out of one of my teeth when the dentist was working on my teeth (I think I brushed my tongue against one of the teeth before she got all the infection out of it)

I was sick for about a week and a half after that with a bad fever. I just finished the antibiotics a couple of days ago, and I've been feeling so much better since then. Better than I have in months. So, I think it's entirely possible I've been having pseudo-exacerbations for at least a year because my dental issues were causing me fevers and also making me feel like total crap.

Give yourself some time on the C. Even tho C is an every day shot, at least it doesnt give you the "interferon flu" for a few days every time you take it.

I prefer the pain to the flu. (that would be my inner masochist talking )

I'm going to give myself a year or two on the Copaxone, and if my neuro thinks that it's not working, then I'll try something else. The C (and the rest of the CRABs) is only supposed to help you avoid a few exacerbations a year...it's not for symptom management.

Bird, thanks for the helpful advice. I had to laugh when you said "look on the good side"...if we get stung by a bee it won't be as bad as before. You are so right and that's the positive way of thinking of things!! I had trouble finding your copaxone threads. I haven't been doing my arms as I'm a thin person and I don't think I have much fat to spare. Also I think I would like to try manual so I should call SS. I'm a little panicked because I am getting more than just the usual pain/skin reactions. I have nausea, headaches and mild achiness. I'm hoping maybe they will go away? I don't think it's anxiety but god, who knows because I certainly have had plenty of that in the past and it has caused funky physical symptoms.

I know that Erin recently switched over to manual and likes it better. (right Erin??) By the way, sorry to hear you have been having problems with teeth and infections. It does sound like maybe you were having pseudo-exacerbations. I am getting mercury fillings removed too.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...light=copaxone

This is one of them!

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...light=copaxone

This is the one you probably REALLY want!!

Good Luck!