Avonex Becomes a Member of the Family, Day 1

Matty started his MS medication this afternoon. A nurse came to the house, compliments of Avonex, and she was great. Expensive meds sure have their perks. The shot is an IM (intra-muscular) that's self administered weekly. It seems Matty's feeling better (emotionally) than he has been the past couple of days. The reality of MS, or being diagnosed with MS, started to set in late last week, and he had a rather sad weekend. The fact that he was going to have to give himself an injection, and that injection would likely have flu like side effects (at least) did not help calm his fears.

The reality kicking in for him affected me too - you can't not be affected when someone you love, your family, your partner, has such a heavy mind and heart. I wished, and still do, that I could take this from him - that I could lift the weight he was feeling, and will no doubt feel at times in the future. I want to be able to suck it out of him like poison from a snake bite. I want to have more control than I do. I'm willing to bet large that control, or lack thereof, will be one of my biggest challenges, one of my biggest lessons. That's ok. I'm ready.

Mary was real, she was happy, she was encouraging and she wasn't full of shit. Matty successfully shot himself up for the first time (he will likely have to do this once a week for at least a year and possibly for the rest of his life. An oral medication for MS is set to come out next year, but who knows if it will be the right stuff.) Anyhow, the most common side effect, and the one that Matty was most worried about, is flu-like symptoms in the 24 or so hours after medication. This should go away after some time - no one can say how long; weeks, months - in unlucky and rare cases the side effects can last for years. Happy Holidays. Mary said that symptoms generally start between 2-6 hours, but in her experience the 5 hour mark seems to be the 'sweet spot' for lack of a better term. Go figure, it's ben just over 5 hours since his shot, and Matty is feeling achy. He also seems to be feeling very positive, and on his blog listed his mood as peaceful. I am overjoyed given his worries etc. over the weekend. So there's ibuprofen and nyquil and lots of fluids, and hopefully he'll sleep through the symptoms and be ready to go tomorrow. If not, he can hang w/ Basil on the couch and drink tea tomorrow. Either way, he'll be fine - we both know this and it feels nice.