A bout a week ago I took my shot (I believe it might have been a day or two after I was prescribed the prednisone when I had started the copaxone injections about a week earlier)...I don't remember where exactly, but I took all the meds and very soon afterwards my face welted up. I mean ALL over my face! After a while, the welting went down and I called a doctor. He said it could have been the pepsid and told me not to take that with the prednisone. He said he's prescribed prednisone many times and no one has ever had that very rare reaction to it. It's rare to react to pepsid but it was the only thing that made sense at the time.
Last night, I took my shot again as usual. I had not taken any other meds yet nor was I eating anything unusual. I injected into my arm and within a couple of minutes I started to get VERY ithcy. Similar to when my face had broken out in hives but this time not just my head. it was all over! As usual I welted up about 3" where the injection spot was but this time my mouth swelled up, my legs got welty, my back became rashy and red and irritated, my joints became very stiff, I was shivering with cold and sweat, and I had some tightness when I took a breath
. I also decided to quickly eat a bagel so I could take the prednisone. I called the Shared Solution nurse for help. She said it's very rare to have that reaction to Copaxone but it sounded like that's what was happening so I needed to call 911. So I did. The doctor told me the first time I reacted that the prednisone should actually help reduce any allergic reactions to meds. I took his advice. I think that may have been why I was improving last night while talking to the ambulance people. We all decided I didn't need to go to the hospital. The ambulance guy said it was entirely up to me. He sees that my reactions were improving but if I am still having some reactions, he'll be happy to take me just to be sure. I turned him down. I did continue to get better. I took some benedryl to help me sleep and to encourage more improvement. That was scary! I woke up with some swelling still around the mouth but otherwise no itching and my site reaction welt has improved a bit. I talked to the nurse at my doctor's office. My neuro is out of town til next Tuesday so another doctor told me to stop taking the Copaxone.
I guess this answers another question I had and that is I won't be able to breastfeed now. My husband and I are trying to have a family and I was hoping to be able to breast feed afterwards. I don't think my doctor will allow for breastfeeding for more than a month, so I could get back on to Rebif at that time. If it's the best thing for me, then that's what I'll have to do.
