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Monday, February 21, 2011

MY BODY WAS DIVORCING ME

I left the hospital feeling as if I was going to get better, back to “my normal”. At this point, I was very positive and quite optimistic. If I could ambulate from room to room regardless of how much rest I would need after doing so, that was progress to me.
In the hospital I was trained to administer my own daily injections of Copaxone. The initial prick, even though it didn’t hurt much, was intimidating. I would hold the needle over the injection site for quite some time before actually using it. It became quite easy in a very short while.
Copaxone is expensive (double my mortgage payment) and not covered by my insurance. After paying out-of-pocket for the first months therapy, a patient assistance program, Shared Solutions http://www.sharedsolutions.com/Home.aspx sent me an application. I was extremely excited to be accepted by their program. They have helped me with the cost of my injection therapy ever since.
At home I followed my physicians’ orders to the letter. I started an oral medication regimen consisting of Neurontin, Norflex, Ativan and Mobic.
Fatigue is crazy. If you ever had the flu or an illness that left you in bed, you can probably imagine what it's like. When you do get an illness like that, soon you feel your strength coming back and it continually progresses. This is how I thought it was going to happen. I thought after that walk around the corridor I would continually progress.
I couldn't even sit upright for long; my arms would get heavy, my back, buttocks and legs would feel numb, tingly and "burn". I could just lie in bed for hours without moving and that was what I did when my body said to. It was my body that was in charge of me now and not my brain. My body was divorcing me. 

2 comments:

  1. Your blog entries are spot on!!

    You have said exactly how I felt in my first year of this new life.

    Denise xox

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  2. I hope you are doing well. I feel very lucky right now. Keeping up with the injections seems to working for me.

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