Thanks
 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I am just so overwhelmed with trying to find out information on MS. My neurologist gave me some pamphlets and an informational package on Rebif. I think that is what she wants me to start taking after the results of my spinal tap. I am a little concerned about giving myself the shots. I should have asked her but forgot, how long does a person stay on a medicine like Rebif?

Is it really easy to give yourself the shot? In the pamphlet it says that you should take the shots at night but can you also take them in the morning? In case I cannot bring myself to give my shot in the beginning, where I work we have firefighters and I am sure I can find one to give it to me. :)

You might want to go on over to the MS Forum and start a new thread and ask these questions. You will get a whole lot more information there.

In fact, maybe I will just copy this post over there for you! There is an introduce yourself thread there so you can post on that (only if you want) and a social chat room called the Stumble Inn for those non-MS related things...so see you over there!

Yeah come on over to the MS Forum. (They know firefighters FG and Friday is my.......ummm shot and I was wondering....):D

I give myself the Rebif shots and they are not a big deal. I used to do Avonex and that was a lot harder, I needed someone to do them for me. With the Rebif I have the auto injector which is awesome! You don't see the needle go in and all you have to do is push a button and it does it itself.

As for giving it at night, that is because of the side effects from the shot. If you give it at night then most likely you will sleep through most of them. I give myself the shot around dinner time, I take Tylenol 1/2 hour before the shot and then again 4 hours later to lessen the side effects.

I know the diagnosis is scary enough for you, never mind giving yourself a shot. We are all here for you if you have any questions or need to vent!:grouphug:

I'm on Rebif. Just celebrating year #3 on it. It's not so bad. You stay on it until you have a reason to come off of it (eg. a cure!:D, a new treatment, you get pregnant, you can't tolerate it, etc.) It's meant to slow down your progression. It will only do that while you take it.

I was petrified of shots in the beginning. I started with Avonex. That's the intramuscular one (really long needle). It was hideous. Then one day I had to do it myself. It was hard but very empowering. After two years, I switched to Rebif. Not too bad. It comes with an autoinjector so you don't have to give the shot manually if you don't want to. I did it with the autoinjector for the first year but then switched to doing it manually because I can inject slower and I think that it hurts less. If you work with firefighters, you'll be sure to have someone who can inject you. Many have been trained as paramedics. Giving a shot is easy, once the nurse teaches you, if you don't think you can do it yourself, you'll at least be able to talk some brave soul into doing it for you. You can do this!:hug:

You can also take them any time of day you want. I choose evening because I can sleep though most of the flu-like side effects, but daytime works too.

Welcome... from one Biffer Babe to another. I have been on Rebif for 2 years now and I am tolerating it very well. The side effects only lasted for about 6 months or so, and I injected at night before I went to bed so I slept through them. Now, I can inject any time of the day, no side effects, no red marks or welts.

I completely understand the fear and apprehension of giving yourself a shot. It is scary. I use the auto injector which helps because it gets it over with in seconds and I don't have to see the needle going in. However, I still jump a little when I do it and I sometimes have to psyche myself up to push the button.

But, it is working for me. I have not had any major flares in the last 2 years and my MRIs show no new lesions and the existing ones are less prominent. Woohoo!

Good luck with everything. You will get a lot of help, support and understanding here. Keep us posted on how it goes.