So the nurse lady came today to show me how to give myself my first Copaxone injection. And all in all, it was generally uneventful.

I mean, except for Rennie leaving a huge puddle on the floor by the door as nurse lady walked in.

Self: Oh isn't that lovely! Watch the pee! Let me just clean that up! One moment! Have a seat!

Nurse lady: rolls eyes and steps around puddle...

Then she (Rennie, not the nurse) started running around and jumping on the nurse lady's white pants and generally behaving like your standard loon. I stuck her in the bedroom and closed the door, thus prompting her to begin barking like aforementioned loon.

The injection itself was painless - it's subcutaneous, so the needle is tiny and very short. And using the auto-injector thingy makes it a piece of cake. I was pretty nervous at first, because the thing is spring-loaded and releases fast, but it really doesn't hurt going in.

What hurts is afterwards. I, obviously, don't have enough experience with the Copaxone to know how it will feel in all injection sites, but in my belly, it started to sting and burn about 30 seconds after injecting the medication. And then a minute after that it really started to burn... and it was varying degrees of stingy/burny/ouchy-ouchy for about 15-20 minutes before it finally calmed down and the rash showed up and the itching started. Add in the slight shortness of breath and the whole experience was just.... well, it was an experience.

Others have said the stinging feels like a bee sting - I haven't had one of those since I was five (knock on wood!) so I don't remember at all what the sting felt like (though I clearly remember the resulting swollen foot!), but if it feels anything like this I'm glad I haven't had one in 25 years! Administering this bee sting injection every day is going to be FUN. I can tell. :-P

Three hours after the fact and the injection site is tender to the touch, but there's (currently) no welt, rash or any other indication (except a tiny red dot where the needle went in) that I did anything earlier. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the extent of the reaction, but the nurse said that the body starts to build up anti-bodies to the medication so the site reactions can get worse over time... so I'm just going to wait and see.

I've not done a lot of research on the Copaxone side effects, but I'm going to try to figure out a way to lessen the stinging. Some folks have said to ice before and after; the nurse today said that icing closes up the capilaries, which keeps the medication close to the surface of the skin - hence making the sting worse. She suggested taking a shower to open up the capilaries before giving myself the injection. So I suppose I'll try both and see what happens. (Anyone have suggestions beyond these two? I'm open to all ideas!)

Anyway, that's the latest and greatest from me. A friend of mine got me sucked into Facebook yesterday. My productivity took a huge nosedive at that point. Sigh...

And speaking of productivity - I need to get going on some school work. The last Harry Potter book arrives Saturday and I intend to be finished with ALL the week's homework so I can start reading it!!