Team Tinman will walk on April 27th, 2014

Hello everyone! I have officially registered a team for the Walk MS event. We would love the support! Come join us and show hubby how many people are behind him. 

Visit www.nationalmssociety.org and scroll down to the Walk MS button. This will take you to a page that will allow you to select Appleton on the 27th and then you will select Join a Team. Type in Team Tinman and it will show you my name as the team captain for verification. Select it and you will have the option of a virtual walk if you cannot physically be here or you can register to walk with us as one group. Let me know if you have any questions! 

Meds Update

Hubby has been struggling a bit with his injections. I try to support him but I can't imagine how hard it is to not only inject himself everyday, but to know that each time it will feel like a bee sting :(

Knowing that he was going to be home, he called his Shared Solutions nurse. When he initially had his injections training, she was not able to line up schedules to be able to come to the house so she sent another nurse that works with her. It was not a bad thing but we never had the chance to meet Lyndsay until yesterday. We both took our lunch and met her at the house at noon to show her everything he's going through. To give you a non graphic visual, within 20 minutes after his injection he has a large bump at the injection site that has a large hot spot around it. These originally started in his legs (his legs are always the hardest because he has NO fat on his legs) but over the last month or so each of the sites have progressively started reacting. 

Hubby put shorts on to show her his legs as well as the other 6 sites and we learned a lot. Lyndsay said that the Copaxone medicine is mixed with a solution called Mannitol. From what I understand, Mannitol is an alcohol-sugar used in both Copaxone and Rebif (another MS injection) that is used to "open" the blood-brain barrier so that the real medicine can cross it. It is not the Copaxone itself that people have the struggle with, it's the Mannitol. She promised that the reactions will go away- said she would put money on it. Your body gets used to it but it can take 6 months to a year......um......really? Okay.... 

With the auto inject, the syringe gets loaded into it and there is a twist top that is the depth setting. She changed the settings and pulled back on the frequency of leg injections. She only wants him injecting his legs once or twice a month to allow them to heal and moved the sites further up his leg. She said to put his hand on his leg with his finger tips on his knee and only inject above his hand. Check! 

There are many ways that patients have adapted to the injections and she shared a few of those with us as well. He can use a heat pack, inject, and then an ice pack, he can use ice, inject and then ice again.....she told us there is no easy solution and to try everything. We will see how it all goes but it was nice to relax a bit about it. The part that was not relaxing to hubby was when she said he could try a manual injection. HA! Nope! I told him I would not have a problem with it if he wanted me to try it and he answered with "absolutely not! I have zero interest in trying a manual injection." We will try everything that she told us we can try and we will see how it goes. 

It is nice to know that everyone has the same reactions while your body gets used to it but I wonder how many people throw in the towel. Would you inject yourself willingly everyday if it hurts and basically leaves track marks? Hubby said his reactions and his bruises make him feel like an illegal drug user. 

Above everything, he doesn't feel sorry for himself. You can't look at him and tell he has MS and that's his goal. There are no physical limitations with movement - ie arms and legs and he is continuing to run and do push ups to ensure that he does everything he can to stay that way. 

Many are worried and some are thinking the worst but I am telling you that he is one of the strongest most stubborn men in the world and if you think that this is going to slow him down, you need to remember who it is we are talking about! :)

Love sent to everyone reading <3