Saturday, January 7, 2012

Flu Like Symptoms? Some Kind of Awful Flu!

I took ibuprofen around 2:00, as directed, and I did the IM injection around 2:45. I was feeling tired, low energy as I left around 5:00, but I wondered if that was just from the long day.

Around 7:00, I began feeling worse. I just could not get warm, and I was shaking. It did not help that our furnace was not working. But the space heater was cutting it for everyone except me.

The feeling of being cold-to-the-bone continued even after the heating and air guy fixed the furnace around 8:30. I felt kind of flushed at the same time (although I chalked that up to being annoyed with the heating and air guy). I took more ibuprofen.

Around 9:00, I was hit with intense pain throughout my body. Muscles, bones, joints--it was hard to say, because I was just overwhelmed with pain. I was hot and cold at the same time. I took my temperature around 9:30, and it was 100.6. I took it again. And again. Darn it, I really had a fever, despite taking ibuprofen. I continued to feel worse, although it came in waves. It was truly awful. I took one more ibuprofen.

I went to bed at 9:45, but I had trouble falling asleep. I tried to be as still as possible, which seemed to help the pain. Or maybe the medication was helping.

I woke up every 20 minutes or so, sweating, in pain, feverish... just suffering. But I kept falling back asleep. At 4:15 I woke up feeling better. Not great, but noticeably better. I went back to sleep and only woke up every hour. 

These are classic side effects of Avonex, so now I think I am randomized into that group. I must be receiving a placebo instead of the DAC HYP. That is so disappointing. But I do not see how they could create those effects from a placebo.

I feel better today. Run down, but so much better than yesterday. I want to curl up and go to sleep, but we have friends coming over at 7:00. It is so hard for life and MS to work together.

Oh, the bad news? I am in for 4-6 months of horrible Friday nights. That is how long it generally takes for the side effects to diminish, if they are going to diminish.

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