My MS, your introduction

Ok, so I went to the neurologist yesterday and she confirmed that I am, in fact, in the middle of a MS flare up. (Jared hates that I call it a flare up. I would be interested to know what everyone else calls it) I am almost completely numb from my breast to my hip, but only on my right side. I noticed it on the 1st of the month and it just keeps getting worse, it's very annoying to say the least. I'm also very tired. Like, I'm having tension headaches from keeping myself awake. But that's kind of it. When I was telling my sister about it, she told me, "I'm so sorry, Leslie." and I told her, "Hey, it could be way worse!" It has been way  worse. The last time this happened, I had terrible double vision and had to wear an eye patch just so I could walk! So, she put me on steroids, just pills- thank God. And I hate steroids! They make me feel like crap the entire time I'm on them. I started a twitter hash tag #steroidssuck if you would like to join me. www.twitter.com/FrognotMom Yeah, by the way, I'm still learning with the whole Twitter thing, but so far it's been fun :)

So, anyways, I know that I'm curious about how other people treat their MS. So I will share how I do, in hopes that someone else will share with us how they do. I started taking the drug Avonex in November I think. It's an intramuscular injection that I take once a week. It's supposed to have terrible flu like side effects (I have been lucky to only have mild ones occasionally), so they made me do a titration with these GIANT syringes. My wonderful husband gave me these. I mean, I seriously wouldn't have been able to do those myself. The needle was like 2 inches long. I don't know if he knows how much I appreciate him, but I truly do. Now, I have these pens, that just shoot the meds into me.

This is it, unassembled. The little clear plastic thing in the top right contains the needle, which is only like 1/2 inch long. It's a tiny thing, and most of the time, it doesn't hurt at all. I started out giving these to myself, but I have started having anxiety attacks at the time to take the injection. It's absolutely irrational and ridiculous, and it makes me so mad that it happens. I mean, I have given birth to three children, had a spinal tap among other fun medical tests, and on top of it all, I have rolling veins that nurses just love trying to get blood out of. I'm no stranger to this kind of thing, and I do it all with out complaint. I'm not scared of needles, and have never been. But, these attacks were so bad, I had to call my mother-in-law, a nurse, to come and make me take it. My theory is that the drugs are making me feel this way. Anyways, I told my nuero about this, and she had to prescribe me anti-anxiety pills to take right before my shot. So, ridiculous that I have to be medicated, just to be medicated! But, whatever, I took the pill in preparation for taking the injection last night, and what do you know, it worked! It was so crazy! I could feel the anxiety trigger when it was time to do it, but none of the symptoms presented, and I remained relaxed and calm! Jared was very appreciative, since he's the one that has sat with me, for literally hours, while I threw fits about taking the injection, that I must remind you, doesn't hurt. I'm still mad at myself for having to go about it this way, but I'm so glad I found a solution to my problem. I would love to know if anyone else has had anything similar happen to them. Comment and tell me about it, or you can follow me on Twitter, or Facebook, or if you don't want your story public, feel free to email me at frognotmom@gmail.com

UPDATE: I'm sorry, I failed to explain what titration is, for those that don't know. It's where you build up to a full dose. I started with 1/4 dose, then 1/2 dose, then 3/4 and then the full dose. This is supposed to acclimate your body to the drug to lessen the side effects.