Originally Written 11-20-2019, Edited & Posted 4-29-2021
In unrelated to how handsome my second (third?) man is, this medicine is killing me. Not literally, but fuck. [Hey, 2021 Jenn here. I have no idea why this was my lead-in, but I’m keeping it.]
So I had a few doses that gave me essentially hot flashes but they weren’t even that bad.
It’s killing my stomach/digestion tract. It’s one of the most common side effects, and they’re all “take some Pepcid or Imodium with it”. Dude, I have a life long struggle of those meds making my stomach problems worse. And they taste how old dirty diapers smell. And did I mention they don’t help? So I’ve got this terrible cramping going on, but like hours after I take it bc it’s well down in my colon.
Buuuuut the benefits seriously outweigh the side effects so long as it does what the claims say.
The companies have also been up my ass. I feel like I’m in an involuntary and unpaid study with how often they call and ask questions. They say this should subside in 4-6 weeks. I’m all… subside or this is my new normal 🤷♀️ 😂
Still no job, which I need. I don’t want to freelance. I want a set hours set pay no major exertion desk job. It has to exist. It’s pretty much all I can do right now. I am not the right kind of sick to qualify for anything which is a plus and a minus, but like, I can’t code anymore. It’s killing me, but I can’t think long enough to finish.
Michael has been in WV visiting his mother this week so I’ve had the kids. I’m sleeping like shit and not able to nap and I feel awful.
See that pill? That was the first day I took Tecfidera. I was all bright eyed and hopeful. This post? I started it on FB on 11/20 and intended to make it a post, but never did. I continued to take Tecfidera (brand name, although a generic was released a few months before I stopped taking it) until December 2020. I had a new MRI in October 2020 where I showed enough new activity in conjunction with the side effects I was still suffering to justify a change of meds. I spoke with Biogen and Gentry (the manufacturer and specialty pharmacy) monthly. For fourteen months I had the same conversation – yes I am remembering to take my pill twice a day, yes I am hoping that the benefits outweigh the side effects. Eventually they just didn’t, although I do believe that without the side effects I would have stuck with the Tec.