I did it! Day one... DONE

It's been kind of crazy trying to arrange for my home health visit to administer my first dose of the Copaxone. The nurse that was going to do it is on vacation and I had been assigned to someone else instead. That replacement called me today, but she said that she works during the week so, she would only be able to come on weekends... driving over 6 hours to get here from Nebraska!!! I ended up telling that one that I may as well wait for the original one to get back from vacation because she lives only an hour away and I really liked the fact that SHE also has MS and uses the drug. We decided that it was best for me to call the drug company and have an on-call nurse talk me through giving myself my first injection and that Carla, the nurse with MS, will bring me my WELCOME KIT and check up on me post-vacation.

Earlier in the day, I had talked to an on-call nurse and asked about the penetration depth of my auto-injector, as well as some other questions. She had me take a shot out of the fridge at that time and then, encouraged me to call them back tonight after Mike got home from work so that he would be home for my shot, that would be room temperature and ready to go.

So, we did JUST THAT!

The same nurse from earlier talked me through it step-by-step. Then, when it was done, she offered praise "Good for You! Congratulations! You did it! You're well on your way!" (Mike had to refrain from laughing, thinking THAT was a little over the top; it's not like I had just won the lottery or anything, but I was lucky enough to have them walk me through it all as a refresher course.)

Now, I have been instructed not to touch or rub the area. So, my belly has a blotchy red blob shape on it and the tiniest welt where the needle went in. It burned a little bit, but that seems to be getting better = 20 minutes later.

Think I will need to sleep with an extra pillow on my stomach tonight... to make sure that the cats don't step on me; that was a problem I had with this in my former life.

Day one... DONE.

Still waiting for a CURE...

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In the kit that had been mailed to me in September 2010, there was a fridge magnet where you can customize it by inserting a (family) photo. On that frame, it says (something along the lines of) THIS IS WHY I DO IT. Mike keeps reminding me of that, too.

In a few days, I look forward to attending the local MS support group's monthly meeting. It will be nice to talk to others who are taking this same medicine and "wear the same shoes".