I am now officially a Copaxone pincushion. The injections aren’t as bad as I expected and the needle is rather thin, so I don’t really feel it go in. The medicine, on the other hand, stings. I’ve shot myself in the arm and the leg so far, and when I used my leg, it ached for about 30 minutes and it hurt to walk on it during that time, as well. BUT - the pain and stinging isn’t unbearable and definitely isn’t comparable at all to the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I’ve heard that in time it could get better, so I’ll hope for that.
The most common side effect is a reaction at the injection site. I didn’t have any problems on my arm, although I did develop a large hive on my leg that went away over the course of the evening. Each site was tender the next day, with my arm being more tender than my leg, and each site still has a slight bruise and small puncture mark. I have not experienced any other issues.
I hope that I respond well to Copaxone (as far as the treatment itself goes) since, out of the four possible medications, it has the least amount of side effects and I now know how I react to it. The other three meds have flu-like symptoms as side effects, among others, that can hit pretty hard (ie: violent chills that will not go away - yikes!). Obviously, since I haven’t tried the other meds, I can’t say how I’d react to them. I’ve read that Copaxone can take a while build up in the system and can take as much as 3 - 6 months to begin working.
In other good news, I heard back from the CDF (Chronic Disease Fund) and I qualify for financial assistance to help with the cost of Copaxone. Right now, I am covered on a trial basis pending official enrollment in the program (I must submit an application within 30-days). This has given my spirit a tremendous boost, especially since it seemed like several things were hitting us at once and now we have one less thing to worry about. Yay! (I’d jump for joy if half my butt wasn’t numb right now - LOL ^_^)
I’ve been having a good week, too. Until today, I haven’t had any problems with my legs and I even took the stairs instead of using the elevator while running errands yesterday. I don’t think I’ve been able to use the stairs in two months over there, which is a big deal since I’m claustrophobic and hate elevators. As far as today goes, once I’m up and moving I’ve been doing okay, it’s the transition from the chair to standing that’s been giving me problems. My knee wants to buckle until it decides that it’s okay with walking. (I guess my knees are just set in their ways today!)
And...I know I’m rambling, but I just have to say that I finally watched the premiere of Fringe and also caught the new episode last night. It’s got me hooked so far. I like the characters, the storylines are intriguing, and the premise is promising. My only gripe with last night’s ep is that the whole brain eating thing screamed SYLAR, SYLAR!, even though I couldn’t hear it. I knew another show had done something with brain eating, but couldn’t put my finger on it until this morning when the USA Today ran an article about Heroes. Duh! So, it was a little lame, but still neat nonetheless. I really hope this show has learned lessons from others (Lost, Heroes, The X-Files, etc) and doesn’t fall into the same pitfalls. We shall see.
Finally...new House last night!! Yay! I’m hopeless, I know, but I love the show. It still uses the exact same formula from week to week - someone’s dying, don’t know why, a little blood, a seizure, a long list of potential diagnosis, the usual “So-and-so is going to die in 24-hours if we can’t figure this out...”...and then at the last minute, bam!, House saves the day (well, unless the patient dies, which has happened, too, but that doesn’t mean that House didn’t figure out. Come on, the man’s a genius, of course he knows everything, right? Right?). ^_^ At any rate, I’m hooked for now and am still enjoying the distraction in all of its syndicated glory. Give it another month...I bet I’ll be over it by then.
I know I said “finally” but I lied. FINALLY - RIP Gus and Shawn, and Mr. Monk until January. :-(
3 comments:
You are now officially "Mr. Glass, P.C." and I am glad to hear that there is a wee bit of financial assistance headed your way which should help with the stress levels.
I saw the premiere of Fringe and I enjoyed the characters but there was a little too much gore for my taste in the beginning of the episode with the whole melting flesh running off of someone's face while everyone devolves into puddles of goo. Yuck!
Oh, in case it isn't obvious, P.C. is Pin Cushion. ^_^
you are a man having good indentity
Mr. Glass, P.C.
Hmm...that sounds so official! Yay!
The second ep of Fringe was a little less gory but the opening was pretty intense. That casting call would have sucked...okay, here's your motivation - you're in intense pain and all you can do is scream, okay...GO! ^_^
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