Decisions, Decisions...

I saw my neurologist on Friday, and well, it looks like we're going to treat this MS thing like the real deal and go on meds.

At my appointment, I was expecting to discuss going on Tysabri (Tah-SOB-ree), the new miracle drug for MS, but it seems that Dr. Grainger thinks that's too risky for me right now given the relatively mild case that I have and the lack of long term data available. So now we're looking at Avonex or Copaxone as possible treatments. He also said I do have the option of not treating, but he is strongly encouraging me to get treatment given my last MRI and recent disease activity. He used this analogy for opting for treatment, which I thought was helpful: If someone has high blood pressure, they don't take high blood pressure medicine to relieve any acute symptom or pain, but rather the medicine is designed to prevent heart disease and a devastating heart attack down the road. MS drugs would do sort of the same thing but should relieve some symptoms as well. That kinda makes sense to me, and helps give me perspective in choosing to treat.

Then I got home and got on the internet to read about the 2 treatments he wants me to consider and the terror ensued. It seems that neither choice will be easy. I'm basically having to choose between the lesser of two evils.

Avonex: This one is a weekly intramuscular (ouch!!!) injection. Side effects are pretty horrible with flu like symptoms for 48 hrs. after injection. Hmm, having the flu once a week sounds like a whole lotta not fun. The drug company says these side effects subside after several months of use, but based on some of the comments I've read, it seems that this is not the case for a lot of people.

Second option is Copaxone. This is the one I was leaning toward, but it seems really scary to me after learning more info. about it. There are no significant side effects to the medicine itself, but I'd have to give myself a shot every day. The shots are done subcutaneously (under the skin -I'm learning all this cool medical vocabulary -which is supposed to be less painful than a muscle injection) Users say that it feels much like a bee sting. This is not very helpful for me, because I've never been stung by a bee! : ) Even when bees were living in my house ( A story for another post... We had some really weird stuff happen to us in our old house) I never got stung. The injections leave welts, redness, bruising, itching, and eventually cause something called lipoatrophy. This is a fun little effect that causes the fat cells to die near the injection site thus creating divots or dents in the skin that are permanent.

I got these big fancy "kits" from the drug makers filled with all kinds of information about both of the drugs. It's amazing how much money drug companies spend on trying to get a person to take their product. Anyway, I've got a lot of reading, talking to JT, and praying to do. My next appointment is July 11th, so I guess I'll be on meds soon after that.

The thought of injecting drugs in my body everyday makes this disease frighteningly more real than it has ever been before.