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Being a maintenance drug it's hard for me to say I started out with nasty symptoms see here - http://www.squidoo.com/mstshirts . I came back and have not relapsed. I don't know if I can credit this to Copaxone or not.

As a leap of faith I'd have to say it has helped me to stay stable. In my MS chapter I have spoken to many people it has helped.

So I say stay on it till someone proves otherwise

just read through this. I'm about to start Copaxone next Monday, and am very nervous about all this stinging I hear about. I'm also very worried about lipoatrophy. What I've read says that you shouldn't massage a site you've injected into for at least 24 hours, because doing so could increase the risk of lipo.

I was DX w/RRMS October 2000. This is the third time I have been on copaxone.

I have had site reactions/discomfort/'knotting since I started. I did have my needle gauge on 8-9. But to-nite, after reading one of the posts, I changed it to 6-7 and injected at an angle, and it produced a pretty gig lump. I press a cold pack against it till it goes away. However, I wonder if it's a choice of shallower depth and big bumps, or deeper at angle and site discomfort for 20-30, minutes, but no bumps. Anybody have any suggestions

sdtbftone1 wrote:I was DX w/RRMS October 2000. This is the third time I have been on copaxone.

I have had site reactions/discomfort/'knotting since I started. I did have my needle gauge on 8-9. But to-nite, after reading one of the posts, I changed it to 6-7 and injected at an angle, and it produced a pretty gig lump. I press a cold pack against it till it goes away. However, I wonder if it's a choice of shallower depth and big bumps, or deeper at angle and site discomfort for 20-30, minutes, but no bumps. Anybody have any suggestions

Doesn't sound like any good options, but I would think it's probably good to avoid the bumps. A few times I injected too shallow at an angle and got these; one time it was so shallow, the medicine started leaking out of my skin.

Have you ever tried the autoinjector?

Thank you for posting. I'll give it a try.

OK I am so glad for this post. My husband gave me a shot in the right leg and it hurt so bad I made him take it out early. It was unbearable. I used ice before and that was a mistake. So 24 hours ago I bought a massager and massaged the left leg for 15 min. Today I used a heating pad on my leg for probably 10 min and my husband gave me a shot in the left leg and MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE. This tip has helped me a ton. It only hurt for a second at the beginning then it went away until the end and it hurt for a second again and that was it. YEAH! I will now massage every other part 24 hours in advance from now on! This was my 7th shot and they have just gotten more and more painful every time until now. Thank you notasperfectasyou! (Also, we only do manual shots)

Getting the injection depth correct is crucial to success with Copaxone. If you inject too deep, you hit muscle and it is very painful. Too shallow and you get a bump. There is a thin layer between the skin and whatever lies beneath (fat or muscle) and that is the target. It took me months to get the depths correct for each location. I also heat the area for 5 minutes prior to injecting and then ice for 5 minutes as well. Massaging the area after the injection is not recommended by Shared Solutions but I always do some form of exercise so I get an 'internal' massage.