Rebif with Zanaflex and Dilantin for MS symptoms

[rachelw84]

I'm 28 years old and I was diagnosed with transverse myelitis and a lesion in the brain resembling early onset MS over 3 years ago. I was taking Savella for the pain and I exercised rarely having any flare ups. I also suffer from tension migraines. I thought everything was under control and I could go on living life normally keeping MS at bay.

In March of this year I got the flu then I went into migraine status for 2 weeks. Then my body began to feel things I've never felt before: spasticity in my neck shoulders and back, jabbing and jolting pains in my face and teeth. I used to just feel numbness tingling zinging and aching.

My neurologist performed another MRI and it showed no new lesions and no growth of the current lesion which was good news but he said it was time to officially diagnosed me with RRMS since my symptoms have increased. I now have a difficult time walking a just a few feet.

Now that I have given my background, I can get to my question, does anyone take Rebif and find relief from it for spasticity and the jolting neuralgia pains in the head? Does anyone take Rebif Zanaflex and Dilantin, and is actually able to live a normal active life?

** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **

[rdmc]

Hi,

Sorry for your diagnosis.

As to the meds you mentioned. Rebif is a DMD, which just means you take it to try to slow up the MS, but it is not a med that will help you with any symptoms, i.e. spasticity, etc.

Zanaflex is an antispasticity med, as is Baclofen. Both tend to cause drowsiness, but they can help relieve spasticity...you sort of have to start at a low dosage and figure out how much you need to control your spasticity. Some people do better with one than the other, but you have to balance you need to be "alert" with the med use because the drowsiness can be an issue. But you never know until you try, so ask your neuro about an antispasticity med.

Dilantin..well, I wasn't aware that they prescribed Dilantin for MS. So I can't help you there, however, it might just be another one of the anti-epileptics that they use for neuropathic pain. They do use several different meds (and some of them are anti-epileptics) to control the sensory symptoms, that you mentioned. Neurontin and Tegretol are anti-epileptics and they can be prescribed for sensory symptoms. Lyrica and Amitriptylene are a couple other they use to control nerve pain. Some of the anti-depressants are also used to control nerve pain.

They may not have a way to stop the disease, or a cure, but over the years they've developed a myriad of meds that can help with the symptoms. And if the symptoms are under control, then you can go about living a normal life, although some folks have symptoms that never completely resolve, some folks do have symptoms that completely resolve. Either way, it's about living a "new" normal life. Seems like for every symptom they have some med that does help. But if you're in an exacerbation, sometimes the symptoms you're having will disappear once the flair is over. First year is always the hardest because everybody's MS is different, and you'll have to "figure out" what works for you.