Sick & Tired

Hello dear readers!

You join today, a broken man.

I am tired. I am achey (and, as mentioned, possibly a little bit breaky... And that's not just my heart either). In fact, today, I am a mere shell of a man, stumbling through what remains the day until the time I can legitimately go to bed without feeling like a seven year old.

And the reason for this? Well, it’s all down to medication.

Come Flu With Me
Fans, or at least the people who put themselves through the torment of reading this blog on a sometimes regular basis, might recall a drug called Plegridy being part of my life these days.

If this is all new to you, then I shall elaborate. Plegridy is something I self-inject on a fortnightly basis. It is specifically designed for MS sufferers and is designed to lessen the chances of a relapse occurring; something it does to the tune of ‘up to 30%’. 

This quite obviously is a fantastic thing and it may (may) have been part of the reason why, a year after the diagnosis relapse, I’m yet to suffer anything anywhere near as dramatic. Of course, in order to establish this, it would be necessary to show that I would have had a relapse, or at the least, that there would have been an increased chance of one, and I’m not sure how one goes about that.

It is not without its costs, however. The leaflet that I got alongside my first injection pen mentions ‘flu-like symptom’. It does not lie. Currently, my head is pounding to the beat of a very persistent drum, my shoulders feel like I’ve recently completed a cross-channel swim whilst towing a medium sized ocean liner, and I could sleep for about ten straight hours (that last bit’s not entirely true, actually. I’m not good at daytime sleeping. Too bright… the day that is, not me).

Ill Effects
Now, bearing in mind that I was diagnosed last July and that I’ve been taking Plegridy for the last, what, nine or ten months, you might think that I’d be getting used to it. You might think that my body would quickly adjust to the drug and that I would be able to shake off the effects or at least, I don’t know, learn to minimise them, to become acclimatised to the effects and not have the impact be quite as far-reaching.

You would be wrong.

In fact, there has been a debate of late, between myself and my wife, Tina as to whether the ‘flu-like symptoms are actually getting worse. This might be something to do with the astonishing lack of punctuality I’ve shown with the injections (4 days late is, I think, my record), or it may be a case of the drug building up as I take it. It could even be that the whole thing is a figment of the imagination and the fallout is remaining at a steady constant. I’m not sure.

Dis-Appointment
One thing we can do, however, is check with the MS nurse. It is, as mentioned, over a year since my first hospitalisation and the MRI that showed up the damage. By all accounts, I should have had a second MRI by now to check on the illness’s potential progress. It might also be a good opportunity to see if there is anything else on the market that might agree with me a little better. I have tried ringing her a couple of times last week and will do so again this week. Hopefully, something can then be arranged on both fronts.

Until then, I guess it’s a case of getting used to making myself ill on a regular basis to stop myself becoming very ill. It’s a trade-off. One that hopefully is worth it. Right now, well, right now, at this sweaty, achy, moment, it doesn’t feel like it.

Until next time…