I had never needed pills or injections before. This is one of the Disease Modification therapies (DMT). Copaxone, (Glatiramer acetate) was chosen to try to slow my MS down.
Looking around the web, I found a young guy, named Matt Allen. He has a blog I follow here : http://mattsmultiplesclerosis.com
Matt also had a video, click here: Video of how to inject the Copaxone, as Shared solutions, their company, did not have any video. They were to send a nurse to my home to show me how to do this, but his video made me feel at ease, and led me to his blog.
Matt's web site is quite detailed, and has explained his adventure with MS, and explains about MS. His blog is always changing, and A great blog to follow since day one,
Injections were easy for me, both manually and by their auto injector. The nurse was quite helpful, allowing me and my partner to learn injections, and sites, techniques, and practice, until ready. I was skinny enough, that I did not need to change settings on the injector depth. I am somewhere on the 2,880 th injection of copaxone daily as I write. More on Copaxone in another blog.
But need to talk of Spasticity issues I was Having.
"Spasticity is a condition in which certain muscles are continuously contracted. This contraction causes stiffness or tightness of the muscles and can interfere with normal movement, speech and gait. Spasticity is usually caused by damage to the portion of the brain or spinal cord that controls voluntary movement. "
This was already a part of me since 2010. I quickly reached the Maximum amount of Baclofen, which is used to treat Spasticity.
By November 2012, my next treatment was with Botox.
"Botulinum Toxin A" injections went into into both calf muscles, neck and forehead by My Neurologist. He could feel which muscles were problem ones.
This was due to issues of cramping muscles caused by misfiring electrodes from my brain, going haywire, being caused by Multiple Sclerosis. This had been going on for two years now, with stiffness, and foot lagging. When I walked, I had to tell my foot to move forward.
Botox is only covered for every 90 days. After day 62-64 they botox wore off. My Neurologist was trying to slow the progression down. More in another blog.
He followed up with VER test of eyes, and lower extremities. I did not do well on either test, but he needed a starting point to see progression, which was better than MRI, as it checked the speed of nerves from brain to toes in both sides.
Thanks for reading
JoeY
