Switch from betaseron

[CNE920]

To those of you who have taken betaseron in the past then moved to another DMD, what made you make the change? And how's the new med working for you?

[0485c10]

i went to tysabri, after using betaseron for 3 years. i began walking like a robot, 6 ,months earlier i had hives that i though were from betaseron, the neuro did not.

then i had a routine mri, that showed a new active lesion in my occipital lobe, and a build up of new inactive lesions in my corpus colusim.

neuro called my up the next day recommended i start ty. actually by that time i was a little scared, it was becoming more and more visible how stif muy legs were--this was going kind of fast.

i did a 30 day wash out of betaseron. i was still walking stiff legged. i had my first tysabri infusion on the 30th day of my wash out, the earliest time i could start ty.

next day, just like that my legs were not stiff any more? and they didn't hurt & wake me at night.

it was good. but the neuro thinks my symptoms might have been a side affect of betaseron & not from ms progressing?

i did really well for 2 days then less well, better than i was on betaseron but not as good as i was those 2 days then i improved more slowly.

she thinks the improvement was not for tysabri, but from getting the last of betaseron out of me. she thinks i had a little bit of beta in me then it combined with ty to give me 2 great days, then betaseron left totally and i began improving more slowly....

what is known for sure is we will never know exactly what happened...could have been ms and it could have been a side affect to betaseron i had developed after 3 years or a combination of both? ...we will never know..what we do know is for whatever reasons beta wasn't working for me after 3 years.

and tysabri has worked well for 2 years...but you caught me on an anxious day--do i really need to be on tysabri or should i be on something else? it never goes away this uncertainty & not knowing if your doing the right thing?

i did not go to gilenya because i thought it too expensive for me--so it was an easy no brainer decision--now someone had to show me that i can afford gilinea. should i be using tysabri yet?...grrrrrr. how do i decide? who will tell me? what if the doc doesn't know? i so much more liked it when i thought one drug was out of my reach financially. this being able to afford either sucks!

[BeBe]

I was on Betaseron twice, the first time, by the time I got to the full dose it hurt to inject, every place I injected hurt to touch, plus I felt weaker, more tired and sexual dysfunction started three quarters of the way through the titration. I took my self off of it and my Dr. said to take a break and start again in a month and titrate slow, one month at a time, it seem more tolerable, but I had a side effect (same as before) sexual dysfunction, so I quit again and we decided to take 2 months off to see if it is the MS or the Betaseron. But I know I won't go back on the Betaseron again, it hurts to inject and it's too sore. I have to decide soon which one of the other DMD to go on, I am leaning toward Avonex, it's only once a week...I don't know!

It seems weird to go on a medication that actually makes you feel worse!