Meds/Vitamins

I always thought my mom was crazy with her pill container and all the vitamins and prescriptions that she takes every day.  I used to think what all of these things are for and one day I had her go through them all with me to see what she was taking and what it was for.  There was a reason for each one of these pills and she needed to take them all.  It was such a pain for her when she would go to the doctor and they would ask her, “What medications do you take?  How much?  How often?”  Who can remember all of this information on them, especially the dosage; milligrams, milliliters, every day, as needed, etc.  I made a card for her that she can carry in her wallet so that when someone asks her this she has all the information in one handy little card. 

When I was diagnosed with MS my doctor put me on a vitamin regimen that I still carry on with most of them today.  If I miss a day taking my pills I don’t feel any different, but if I go 2 days without taking them then I can feel my body dragging.  The one thing that I am still trying to wrap my head around is now I have to carry one of those cards with all my medications listed on it.  I didn’t think I was going to have to do this until I was older!

 
This is what all of my meds are for. . .

Copaxone-                          This in my injection that I have to do subcutaneously every day.  This is keeping my flare up’s to a minimum.  There is no medication that you can take that will completely take away all the symptoms of MS, but this is the treatment that I chose because it had the least side effects.  The only down fall is I have to do the injection every day.  Some of the other treatments are just once a week, wouldn’t that be nice!!  However, they have some pretty nasty side effects. 

Acidophilus-                      I take this because I am a woman.  Enough said!

Vitamin D-                          This is a vitamin that people usually get from being exposed to the sun.  This vitamin is often times low in people with MS.  Research isn’t sure why, but I am sure one reason is because the heat from the sun is hard on people with MS and if exposed to it too much flare-up’s usually result.

Vitamin B-2-                      This vitamin I have to special order because it usually is not on the shelf’s of normal drug stores.  It is also known as Riboflavin.  I have my blood drawn every so often and each time I have been very low in this particular vitamin so my neurologist suggested that I start taking this supplement.  This vitamin helps the body convert food into fuel for your body and helps the nervous system function properly.  When I was first diagnosed I was also put on Vitamin B-12 injections, but thank goodness my last blood draw said I was back to normal on those levels so I just have the copaxone injections to do.

Omega 3 Fish Oil-            Also known as “Brain Food”, this was a recommendation by my neurologist to help my memory.

Calcium + D3-                    Another vitamin that was low in my most recent blood draw.  In order for your body to absorb the calcium it receives in your diet you need to have Vitamin D.  Osteoporosis is very common in people with MS.  This is caused by the body not getting enough calcium.  Due to my MS my body was not getting enough Vitamin D, which means it was not absorbing the calcium that I would eat.  Now that I am taking Vitamin D, I need to get my calcium levels back up to where they should be.

Multi-Vitamin-                 This is the most recent pill that I added because my hair was falling out in clumps.  I spoke with my neurologist and he said this is a side effect of copaxone.  He told me that if I took a zinc supplement then it would stop the hair loss and a multi-vitamin is the best way to get this.  It seems to be working for me and I have less hair in my hair brush.

I saw my neurologist last week and he wants me to continue on these same vitamins/medications.  I have an MRI scheduled for next Friday so we will go from there.