New to DMDs + Avonex: how do you balance your life with it?

[yiasza]

Hello all! Firstly, I can't believe I never found this comm before... I'm so glad.

I've had MS for a good few years but was only diagnosed back in January after optic neuritis. I started on Avonex on Monday but after next week, I want to change my injection time to Thursday night because a) I can't take it Friday-Sunday due to my life schedule, and b) at least if I inject then, I can sleep through the worst and Fridays are always a tired day at work anyway!


But how do you balance your life with it generally? Ie next month I have my corporate christmas party on a Thursday. I want to attend as it's a big thing at my company, but don't want to inject BEFORE or I'll feel crappy during, and don't want to inject AFTER because I will probably be drinking there??

I don't know... any advice for how you've learnt to balance your life and Avonex days?

[Poe]

I had a great nurse who came out to show me how to do the injections. She told me to drink a lot of water the day before, the day of, and the day after my injection. Take ibuprofen 30 minutes before I inject. It's worked well. I'm 5 weeks in and not had to much in the way of side effects. Just a real bad headache the morning after. A couple more ibuprofen takes care of it. Oh and I'm a lot more heat sensitive the day after but not to much I can do about that. It does say to avoid alcohol though because Avonex can damage your liver. I'm not telling you what to do. Just an FYI in case you didn't know.

[yiasza]

I had a great nurse who came out to show me how to do the injections. She told me to drink a lot of water the day before, the day of, and the day after my injection. Take ibuprofen 30 minutes before I inject. It's worked well. I'm 5 weeks in and not had to much in the way of side effects. Just a real bad headache the morning after. A couple more ibuprofen takes care of it. Oh and I'm a lot more heat sensitive the day after but not to much I can do about that. It does say to avoid alcohol though because Avonex can damage your liver. I'm not telling you what to do. Just an FYI in case you didn't know.

Thanks so much! Just injected again for the second time and slept through it, woke up quite a bit feeling shivery and achey so will need to adjust times. I didn't know about the water thing but that makes sense because I woke up this morning with a heavy, headachey head very similar to a hangover!