It’s been a day over a week since I’ve taken anything to control my MS. For the past five years, I’ve given myself a daily shot of glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) to fight against the progression of my Multiple Sclerosis. In all honesty, I’ve forgotten to do it here and there and there was even a few months that my neurologist actually had me taking it every other day, but I’ve never gone more than two days….ever. I am trying to decide what it is that I’m feeling right now. Am I brave, feeling reckless or am I just nervous?
The routine of administering Copaxone isn’t pleasant but it was mine and it was a way to fight back. I have had five fairly good years and, until the last year, progression-free MRI results were part of this which means Copaxone was good for me. I can’t say that I actually miss Copaxone, or giving myself Copaxone and I certainly don’t miss the effects that were always present to remind me that I was in a fight. The hot, itchy welt followed by the painful lump at each injection site that wouldn’t go away until there were at least three others weren’t enjoyable and the lipoatrophy that will never go away is depressing but they are my battle wounds from fighting. My MS tends to make me hypersensitive to anything that assaults any of my senses and Copaxone was often “nails on a chalkboard” for me. The sounds of tearing the paper off of the plastic sleeve that housed the unused syringe, the pop of the Autoject when it hit the plunger to push the medicine into my body and the clink of an empty syringe hitting the others in an echoing sharps container often hurt my ears and the smell of rubbing alcohol now makes me nauseous. My sense of touch has been assaulted the most because the pain of the needle and the even more painful liquid it administered left a continuous pain which resulted in assaulting my eyes with permanent pits under my skin that make me cringe when I look at myself. It has been five years of irritating loudness and now I have none of it and it’s just static. There is no quiet or reprieve for me when I always thought there would be, there is static and it is loud and bright in a space too quiet and dim to hold it.
I am waiting to start a new therapy to fight against the progression of my MS, which is why I stopped Copaxone. I’ve listened to and read about other people’s desire to stop their disease modifying therapy because they are tired of it all as well as those who haven’t started or been able to continue either out of fears, monetary restraints or they just don’t feel the numbers are good enough to justify the risks and tolls of MS medications. I clearly see and have felt all of these issues many times myself but now, as I do nothing but wait, I know that I’m not too tired to fight on and that my fear of disease progression is stronger than my fear of side effects as well as wishing the statistics from all the current medications showed better results to justify the risks.
So, I guess to answer my question, I feel all three of these things. I know I’m worried because I’m writing this as well as not sleeping and it feels rather reckless to be doing nothing to fight my MS but I also feel brave. I know I will be brave to go though the noise again that the new medication will bring to my body, as well as a new set of unknowns because I am certain it will also require as much and I know I had to be brave to take the leap of faith the decision required but I wish I was also brave right now, in the present as I write this through all the static.
I’m trying really hard to be patient. This is hard for me. I bite into pizza before it cools and burn the roof of my mouth…every time. I always pull things out of the microwave and oven before the timer goes off. I could give example after example but I think it’s pretty clear. This is a test for me and I hate it!
musings of ms 