copax sounds awful. i hope you work your way through this. i've no doubt that you will.

Yeah, Dej. I understand the dilemmas associated with being in a trial.

If you can find a way to stay on Copaxone, that might be your best option.

~ Faith

Every time I see title of this thread, I think cans.

Lol!

I think it reads: I am demented. I better get my eyes checked.

~ Faith

I went off of Copaxone primarily becuase of the dents in 2007.
My thinking was this: I haven't had an exacerbation (that I know of) since initial diagnosis in 2001, I can take a break from Copaxone - see how it goes - and maybe get back on the some sort of therapy when the 'next drug' makes it way through the pipeline.

I didn't want to keep denting myself without knowing for sure it was helping me and deterring the course of this disease (because it sure was altering the shape of my body!).

I haven't had any additional exacerbations so, do not regret the choice to stop Copaxone. My doctors were in support of the decision actually, so long as I indicated to them I'd be willing to revisit the drug discussion should my health take a turn for the worse. They agreed that each of the drugs available now exact a cost on our bodies and the big picture (i.e. my sense of well being and day to day experience) was most important for me. And again, you can always go back.

Does that make sense?

My mind swings rapidly from pillar to post on this one. Today, I want to fight tooth and nail to save the Copaxone as my DMD. Tomorrow I am fed up, had enough, and simply think its too high a price to pay for a 33% effectiveness rating on a drug and may or may not be stopping that next relapse.

My DH has been in a mood lately, and when I sat him down last night, and cornered him, he admitted he is afraid that they will pull me off the copaxone, and I will have relapse after relapse, and then life will go down hill rapidly. He feels like all those old sx will return. I had to back him up and explain that Copaxone doesnt do anything for the sx of today...you all know the story. He sounded relieved, and understood a whole lot better once I exlpained a bit more about this med to him.

I need to figure out what I am going to do to save or dismiss this med.

No advice for you, Dej. Because, I think you're aware of all the factors and possibilities. Hope you can come to a decision that you are comfortable with, and that ends up working for you.

Best wishes,
~ Faith

I totally get the quandry you're in and really appreciate the pilar to post comment. I wanted to stay on Copaxone too; in fact, I told the Shared Solutions people I'd go back on it in a heartbeat if they got it into pill form. There wasn't anything about the drug - aside from the dents - that I didn't like.

Hang in there, keep weighing it out. It's okay not to jump toward one answer or another, especially if your perspective changes from day to day. I mean, You don't want to quit taking it and then give yourself a harder time by second guessing yourself. Whatever decision you make will be the right one, don't doubt that.

I am not a doc, but I did get a bad nights sleep last night... With that said, keep in mind that the primary reason why they pick the 7 areas for injections is that those are areas where we typically carry the most subcutaneous fat in our body. But for many of us, those are not the ONLY areas we have such fat. So check with your doc, but I would suggest making use of other areas where more widespread fat is present more often and use the places where the dents are getting bad less frequently.

Hope you get things figured out soon... that mental torture is crazy, going back and forth, I'm doing it right now as I try to figure out what I should be doing for myself right now.