I've only been on Copaxone three weeks. I'm doing the 40mg 3x a week, and thus far have not used an autoject (I have NO idea why, because I specifically requested it... but my neuro didn't send the prescription properly, so I just got the pre-filled syringes, going to bring it up today when I visit.)
I thought that the part that I would not be able to get past would be injecting myself. Turns out, that doesn't bother me at all. Occasionally, certain places hurt more than others to stick, but for the most part the needle is so thin that I can barely feel it pierce the skin.
The problem is the pain that arises once I start injecting the medicine. Like, I might as well be injecting myself with viscous alcohol, it burns and feels heavy and hurts like the dickens. If there's one thing I can say about myself, it's that I have a very high pain threshold, so it has to be pretty bad for me to even let people know that I'm hurting, and I'm hurting.
The pain is the worst in my legs, I guess my legs are pretty muscular (in fact, turns out that I don't have as much fat anywhere as I think I do, it's doing wonders for my vanity). My first injection from three weeks ago STILL hurts to touch, like a bad bruise (there's no actual bruise) on my left leg. I noticed with that first injection that I could feel the spread of the medicine, despite the big huge lump under my skin and redness, as I noticed some joint pain in that knee where I have previously had tendinitis.
Ever since I began it, my legs and feet have been cramping/seizing up.
The first (and so far only) time that I injected into my stomach, I felt immediately so tired and sick that I fell asleep for two hours and woke up only because I was so dizzy and nauseous. I vomitted for three hours and I had nothing to throw up, I had chills, etc. I didn't start feeling better for a week, but the nausea did seem to get better when I switched from night time injections to AM injections. I'm really nervous to give it in my stomach again. The rest of that week every time I injected I immediately felt REALLY hyper. Occasionally, I'll feel like my legs are a little weak and I'm a bit dizzy (and I don't feel that this is an MS symptom, I think it's a reaction to the medication).
I'm not injecting too far in, in fact, my first injection wasn't deep enough (I got a welt) so when I injected in my right leg 48 hours later I went in at a different angle and it was VERY OBVIOUS that I had made a mistake with how deep to inject. The fact that all injection sites still hurt from weeks ago is making me nervous. My second shot into my left leg hurt even worse (given 2 weeks and 2 days after the first injection in that leg, because of rotating around to each of the 7 sites), I steered clear of my original site but the original site pain flared up on top of the pain from the new injection site, and the joint pain in that knee is still horrible.
So, I guess I'm wondering, is it worth it to stay on and try to get used to it? Or find something else? Does this sound like a very bad reaction to anyone else? I can bear it, but only barely, and mostly because I do have a pretty high pain tolerance...
. I'm going to the neuro today, so obviously I'll get a professional opinion, but I'm also curious about input from my peers. 
Trying to stay positive. Had NO disease activity, no new lesions, no relapses, no nothing, in the two years I was on Tysabri (prior to being JCV+). I just...want everything to be okay, and I don't want it to hurt.
Dx in Nov. 2013, aged 24, First and Only Relapse: Optic Neuritis.
February 2014-December 2015 Tysabri. No relapses. No disease activity on MRI.
Discovered JCV+ in Nov. 2015, and made the decision to stop Tysabri in January 2016.
Began Copax Feb 2016.
I thought that the part that I would not be able to get past would be injecting myself. Turns out, that doesn't bother me at all. Occasionally, certain places hurt more than others to stick, but for the most part the needle is so thin that I can barely feel it pierce the skin.
The problem is the pain that arises once I start injecting the medicine. Like, I might as well be injecting myself with viscous alcohol, it burns and feels heavy and hurts like the dickens. If there's one thing I can say about myself, it's that I have a very high pain threshold, so it has to be pretty bad for me to even let people know that I'm hurting, and I'm hurting.
The pain is the worst in my legs, I guess my legs are pretty muscular (in fact, turns out that I don't have as much fat anywhere as I think I do, it's doing wonders for my vanity). My first injection from three weeks ago STILL hurts to touch, like a bad bruise (there's no actual bruise) on my left leg. I noticed with that first injection that I could feel the spread of the medicine, despite the big huge lump under my skin and redness, as I noticed some joint pain in that knee where I have previously had tendinitis.
Ever since I began it, my legs and feet have been cramping/seizing up.
The first (and so far only) time that I injected into my stomach, I felt immediately so tired and sick that I fell asleep for two hours and woke up only because I was so dizzy and nauseous. I vomitted for three hours and I had nothing to throw up, I had chills, etc. I didn't start feeling better for a week, but the nausea did seem to get better when I switched from night time injections to AM injections. I'm really nervous to give it in my stomach again. The rest of that week every time I injected I immediately felt REALLY hyper. Occasionally, I'll feel like my legs are a little weak and I'm a bit dizzy (and I don't feel that this is an MS symptom, I think it's a reaction to the medication).
I'm not injecting too far in, in fact, my first injection wasn't deep enough (I got a welt) so when I injected in my right leg 48 hours later I went in at a different angle and it was VERY OBVIOUS that I had made a mistake with how deep to inject. The fact that all injection sites still hurt from weeks ago is making me nervous. My second shot into my left leg hurt even worse (given 2 weeks and 2 days after the first injection in that leg, because of rotating around to each of the 7 sites), I steered clear of my original site but the original site pain flared up on top of the pain from the new injection site, and the joint pain in that knee is still horrible.
So, I guess I'm wondering, is it worth it to stay on and try to get used to it? Or find something else? Does this sound like a very bad reaction to anyone else? I can bear it, but only barely, and mostly because I do have a pretty high pain tolerance...
. I'm going to the neuro today, so obviously I'll get a professional opinion, but I'm also curious about input from my peers. Trying to stay positive. Had NO disease activity, no new lesions, no relapses, no nothing, in the two years I was on Tysabri (prior to being JCV+). I just...want everything to be okay, and I don't want it to hurt.
Dx in Nov. 2013, aged 24, First and Only Relapse: Optic Neuritis.
February 2014-December 2015 Tysabri. No relapses. No disease activity on MRI.
Discovered JCV+ in Nov. 2015, and made the decision to stop Tysabri in January 2016.
Began Copax Feb 2016.
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