Tag Archives: injections

Four years worth of rebif

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Almost a $100,000 thousand worth I have pumped into my body in defense against my ms. I have to say it seems to have stopped any reoccurrence of major symptoms. But maybe they wouldn’t have happened again anyway. Or maybe diet and exercise was the difference? I wish I had security in my medication, but I really don’t. I have more hope being a vegetarian runner. And pushing myself hard. Taking advantage of opportunities, or at least enjoying them. That’s the better medicine.

The choice to switch to the oral meds – fingolimod – has been an interesting one. I’d love to ditch the shots and the excess shipping (almost 50 giant styrofoam coolers) but I think (and so does the nuero) that if treatment is showing success why change? I suppose someday I’ll be on it so why not get started now? I am pretty sure it would be effective for me, but would the change of medication, the actual transition have any worsening effect? Would the pills only come in non-vegetarian gelatin based capsules? Would some aspect of the pills require some gigantic shipping method that dwarfs the rebif styrofoam?

I have had some skin reactions recently, more than just the bruising. Itchy area, general soreness in the shot places and what looked like a small needle infection on my back right side. I moved the spots I normally inject in the area and skipped a cycle. Seemed to clear up. Today I did it in the back of my left arm, a painful one but quick. The backs of my arms seem to be the most painful of all the recommended spots. I have thought about skipping the arms but I want to make sure the other areas don’t get over used.

I didn’t run again today. I’m having some issues with consistency lately. I’ll get better I know it. I am really tired of running in the cold I am ready for some warmer weather.

Ugh, its been a couple weeks

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My running has really changed since I started running the dog. She can do around 3-4 miles max, and I have been bad about not adding on any additional miles. Heck she’s done, I might as well be too. Today was the first time in a weeks I actually added anything onto my runs. I ended up doing just under 9 miles. Being the first long run in awhile I am really feeling it this evening. The last three miles or so where grueling. Just 3-4 weeks ago I was doing 6-8 mile runs 3-4 times a week.

I have to say the short runs with Fig are pretty enjoyable. She does a good job of keeping up as well as not pulling. She likes her crows. These runs have really changed my patterns as I have been more erratic. I have had a harder time focusing on my own running things. Still maybe I will be forced to work on my form in my add-on runs. Fig likes to run only where I run. She leads well yet is also good at keeping on my heels.

Perhaps I should try to do at least one add-on run a week with the option to not run Fig and go longer on my own as well as the track.

On the ms side I ended up with the needle uncapped and out of my auto injector. So for the first time I jabbed myself and plunged. It was pretty easy actually, but I have been paranoid about it having to inject myself for sometime. I had thought about just trying it a couple of times, but I never did. Overall I would say over-rated, it was easy and painlessish.

Killer hills

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I didn’t run yesterday as I used the excuse of not having any gels to power through a hill repeat run. Well the gel came that afternoon, so no excuses remained. Actually I was fine with that as I knew I had to do some hills to keep on track with my fluctuating quality run plan.

So a note on the gel: I purchased a 26 serving bottle of Chocolate Hammer gel for $20 on Amazon. I use 3 oz gel flasks and dilute 1 to 1 with water. It takes some shaking to get it mixed up, but it is a lot cleaner and less wasteful than the individual servings not to mention cheaper. I really like doing my gels this way. The bottles I have a weird and are rounded so they don’t stand up but feel good in my pockets. I like the diluted gel as well. The chocolate was a little sweet, I have had espresso as well and I thought that was less so.

So in addition to my diluted gel I also brought a pack of Honey Stinger fruit energy chews. They are a bit like Sharkies only more jelly like, sort of remind me of the old jelly candies my Grandma had. They are ok, I don’t think I care for the Honey Stinger product lines so much. They are a bit too strongly honey tasting for me. I had some gels from them as well that I got as samples at the Portland Marathon and they were the same way, like eating a tablespoon of honey. Good but too honeyey. I had maybe 3 or 4 of them on the run to the hills and then the gel halfway through. I felt pretty good energy wise, good combination of gel energy and electrolytes.

So the hills were tough. My hill route I went on today has 10 or 11 hills about a quarter mile long of varying steepness. I zig-zag up and down along this three block long ridge. So down for three blocks, over one, up for three blocks and over one and so on. Halfway through I turn around and go up the ones I went down the first time through. The workout tapers a bit to the mid-way point with the hills getting easier, but the way back is murderous and by the time I near the end of the hill portion, the final two hills are brutal. Here is the run. I felt pretty strong throughout the run and my HR dipped pretty low on the recovery portions (130-140). My max HR was 185 for the run, but more often in the high 170s. It was a good workout and one I feel pretty rested from now that the afternoon has waned.

I missed my rebif injection yesterday, so I did it today after the run. I have been doing the shots after workouts for awhile now and so far I have bot seen any sort of issue with it. I am not sure if the exercise makes it any more or less effective, but there don’t seem to be any problems. Even today when I did my shot into my leg all pumped up after the hill repeats, no issues. I do notice that when I inject in the morning I sometimes have to take ibuprofen in the evening to cull a headache, but it doesn’t happen often. I do worry about taking so much ibuprofen and acetaminophen and its effects on my liver. But I guess I’ll deal with that when I have something concrete to deal with.