Copax Flush

[Devilinside]

I've been on copaxone since 8-25-11. I was officially dx on 6-27-11, so needless to say, this is my first DMD. Other than the injection site reactions, I haven't had any problems with the copax......that is until last Saturday night. I did the injection in my stomach, and about 30 seconds later, the flushing started. I got light headed and REALLY REALLY hot! I sat down and focused on breathing because the nurse who showed me how to do the injections told me about the possiblity of the "panic attack". I thought my heart was going to flop right out of my chest. It was all over within 15. So, my question to all of the copax users out there......if you've had the "flush", where did you inject on your body when it happened? I'm just curious. I did it right below my belly button and am guessing maybe I hit a blood vessel because it is bruised up badly and I've never had bruising like that before.

TIA!

[andeolus]

I never had any issues with flushing, but about a month in, I had a real bad case of heart palpitations. It lasted about a half hour and it really had me in a panic. It subsided, and I told the nurse at Shared Solutions. She said that was on of the more extreme adverse reactions and should be less of an issue as my body adjusted.

Eight months in and I hadn't had that issue again. I believe that was also a belly shot I did that led to the issue.

Good luck!

[wkikta]

That was most likely your first IPIR, Immediate Post Injection Reaction. It can seem like a Heart Attack, but usually passes fairly quickly. It usually doesn't matter where you injected. There is some belief it is from when you inject into a vein, but nothing positive. It is very rare so most people just accept it and go on.

[Margeaux]

IPIR = Immediate Post Injection Reaction
It was maybe a year until I experienced IPIR. For approximately 11 years now, I have an IPIR that occurs on average 1x/mo. I think the IPIR happens when it goes directly in the blood stream and have learned to avoid certain areas in my stomach.

It lasts 10 minutes, begins with nausea, moves to tightness in my lungs, my body heats up, the heat in my head becomes unbearable and my ears throb with heat and pain. The intensity varies on the occasion. The unbearable part is toward the end and lasts only a few minutes. At it's worse, I would kill myself if I didn't know it would be over in a few minutes.

I put up with the IPIR because Copaxone may be providing me an extraordinary benefit, as I've had no new attacks in the 12 years since I've been diagnosed.

[Redwings]

When I was on Copaxone, the only place I could tolerably inject was my upper or lower abdomen. (After trying it once, I never again injected anywhere in my arms or legs. Waaaaay too painful.) I was fortunate to have never had an IPIR or other problem while using Copaxone.

The location of your injection may not have been significant, but it sounds like you might have hit a blood vessel (it's bound to happen eventually). The Copaxone literature doesn't correlate IPIRs to location of injection, so you might have had an IPIR, regardless of where you injected. It sounds more like just bad luck.

[Knoel]

I was on copaxone for about a month when I started getting the flushing feeling mixed with I cant breath and my heart felt like it was going to runaway. I called the nurse she said it was normal. I think I injected it in my stomach that night. Well anyways I kept on copaxone but a week later I had another one of those reactions only worse I felt like someone had put a 500 pound weight on my chest. That time I injected in my leg. I called my nero and when she said that it could last for an hour I was done. I havnt been on meds since but I will be starting avonex soon. The people from copaxone also told me sometimes it gets worse the longer your on it but this depends on the person. They also told me its not dangerous so not to worry and to call them during the reaction. Good luck though. I couldnt handle it Im a baby when it comes to side effects hopefully you do better on it then me.