Depth of copaxone shots?!

[Thinkimjob]

Oh, "trepidatiously' is a beautiful word.
I think you go downhill anyway, maybe with the park brake on, but you still go down. And with the brake on you can hear the grinding.
A friend with diabetes told me you don't have to 'shoot up' all that deep.
Me, I just stab that sucker in, and hope I don't hit a vein.
Arms are out. Just hurts and swells up too much. Hips and outer buttocks these days. Stomach way too painful.

[cosake]

DianeD -

My doctor switched me to Gilenya due to severe injection site reactions. It is miserable and affects your daily quality of life. For me, I'd almost rather have an MS flare than the site reactions I was having.

You might want to talk to your MS doctor about switching to a different injectable, or to one of the two available oral meds.

[DianeD]

RRMS

DianeD -

My doctor switched me to Gilenya due to severe injection site reactions. It is miserable and affects your daily quality of life. For me, I'd almost rather have an MS flare than the site reactions I was having.

You might want to talk to your MS doctor about switching to a different injectable, or to one of the two available oral meds.

My neuro seems to think that Copaxone is the best for RRMS. I have told him I'm at the 'end of my rope' with patience for sticking myself. It wasn't this bad to begin with, but I guess with time it's a problem.

The oral meds are probably going to be too much for me. I'm 68, thinking the oral that can slow heartrare would not be a good thing and it doesn't look like this new med the FDA approved is going to be easy to take also.

I also note that friends my age who are retired and on Social Security, plus pay as we do for prescription drugs and basic insurance, have a lot of trouble moving up to more recent drugs and even new surgical procedures.

The 'new' medicine I'm afraid.

Anyway I do appreciate your response. Thank You :-)

DianeD

[DianeD]

I agree...

Oh, "trepidatiously' is a beautiful word.
I think you go downhill anyway, maybe with the park brake on, but you still go down. And with the brake on you can hear the grinding.
A friend with diabetes told me you don't have to 'shoot up' all that deep.
Me, I just stab that sucker in, and hope I don't hit a vein.
Arms are out. Just hurts and swells up too much. Hips and outer buttocks these days. Stomach way too painful.

I love words :-), trepidatious is how I tend to feel lately. And I agree with you. My DH says I see the glass half empty all the time; maybe, but I'm the one who has to stick that d*** needle in everyday. If I felt better or even felt I had stayed as well as I felt the first day I did my injection perhaps I'd be more positive.

For me, MS is not the only thing I deal with. I also seemed to have developed Chronic Bronchial Asthma (no, not a smoker or around one) too.

Ah well, I am happy to be alive; the altenative is not to be :-)

Diane D

[cosake]

@ DianeD -

I can understand your reasons for not wanting to try a new oral med, but you can always look at something like Avonex which is only once a week, or Betaseron (I think only ever other day). Then you don't have as many injections to do.

Your neuro's opinion on Copaxone is just an opinion. Don't be afraid to speak up because there are plenty here who have done well on the other DMDs. My neuro felt that Betaseron was the best for RRMS so that is what I tried first, but he did say that they were all fairly comparable.

If you are considering stopping the Copaxone altogether - you might want to consider the Avonex, which would be better than not taking anything at all. It is only once a week.

Good luck.