Daytime Post

This is my first daytime post on the MS Blog, and I'm not sure why I'm writing since I'm not particularly depressed, itchy, in pain, or unable to sleep (at least no more than usual). I took my second dose of Betaseron yesterday, and I have to say it was much easier on the first day when the nurse was here and I jabbed myself in the stomach. I decided to inject myself in the thigh yesterday, and it was not so good. The needle pulled out the first time and I had to inject myself again. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to handle those types of mishap--whether I need to throw out the whole dose and start again with a new one, but I just went ahead and stuck myself again with the same syringe. The trickiest part of the whole venture is that once you stick yourself, you need to pull the plunger out to see if any blood goes into the syringe. If it does, you've supposedly hit a blood vessel and you need to throw out the whole needle and start again. If you don't get any blood, then you can go ahead and inject the Betaseron. I guess it'll become second nature to me since I've got to do it every other day from now on. Two injections down and so far I've had none of the side effects I've read about, at least not severe enough to be too bothersome. There's some achiness I've noticed and some other weird sensations in my limbs, but I'll continue to monitor the effects.

I've had great luck getting donations from friends and family for the MS Walk we'll be doing in Richmond this April 21. I've managed to get $650 in pledges already and more has been promised, so I'm pleased about that. My back has been naggingly aching lately, but that's just the latest in a long series of weird ailments that I can't quite decide whether or not they're MS related.

Had another psychotherapy meeting on Friday and it went pretty well--turns out my coping strategies have all been okay, and she didn't have any other helpful advice for me (except maybe to go ahead and do more of the coping strategies, like getting up and working late at night instead of laying in bed worrying, and going ahead and taking the sleep medications I've been prescribed instead of trying to fall asleep on my own). That's it for now.