St. Patrick's Day & Gilenya Week Eight

I love St. Patrick's Day! Erin go Bragh, everyone!  I haven't really celebrated this year, but I did call my grandma for a chat, and talking to her always makes me happy.  


Good news! I had my final dentist appointment on Friday, so the root-canal-re-do is finally done. Bad news, they took my blood pressure, and it's still very high, 163 over the bottom number, which I can  never remember. I think I forget the bottom one because I kind of panic and lose focus when I hear how high the top number is. I don't know why I'm so bothered by the high blood pressure, because it is definitely a side effect of the Gilenya.  (Speaking of being bothered, I can't even think that word without clicking over to Youtube to watch a little Catherine Tate and David Tennant. It's not Irish, but I'm going to call it my Happy St. Patrick's Day moment.) 


Anyway, I guess I need to call my neuro on Monday and see what he wants me to do. My next appointment with him is in the middle of April, but I don't think this can wait until then. 


Impressions: I am happy with how things are going, except for the high blood pressure, and the elevated liver levels.  

Side Effects: Sleepiness, still sleeping at least 10 hours a night, more on the weekends, high blood pressure, bright light sensitivity, numb tongue, elevated liver levels, funky dreams. 

Gilenya, Week Six-ish-to-Seven-ish

I've decided to stop counting by days, and begin counting by weeks, because I'm past a month of treatment and counting days is becoming annoying.  Also, I am not a very good daily blogger.  Also, I might not ever publish these entries because I am lazy, so it doesn't matter to anyone but me. Also because I have been off-and-on-again with the Gilenya a couple of times in the past couple of weeks because of infections.


So, six weeks in and the foggy-mindless-absent-brain-ness is fading away. Yea me! But, I am still fighting the sleepiness. Still, I think it is better to call this sleepiness rather than fatigue because my Multiple Sclerosis related fatigue is so much different. I haven't maintained the M.S. fatigue-free-ness, nor have I maintained the I'm-not-sick-because-I-stayed-away-from-everyone's-germs-ness.  I got sick. So very sick. I had an urinary-track infection at the same time I had a sinus/upper-respiratory infection. Seriously.  No, SERIOUSLY. I wanted to die. Well, not really. But I did at least once during the illness wish that I had the power to always and forever make every person who is battling even the tiniest sniffle or tickle in the back of  their throat stay away from me and everything that I might have potential coming into contact with.


And, since antibiotics and Gilenya do not work well together, I went off of the Gilenya while I was on my Z-pac.  And, I then when I was starting to feel better, but I pushed myself too hard, and got all feverish and general-sense-of-malaise-y again. So, back on the antibiotics again!  Blah!


Also, the day before I came down with the massive double-infection, I was at the dentist getting my root canal redone. FEEL SORRY FOR ME! Root canal redone- meaning the work that was done before wasn't good enough, partly because I was taking a disease-modifying medication which represses the immune system. Gilenya, you are the reason my dental work is more complicated than normal people! As if M.S. wasn't enough to deal with!!!


Impressions: This low white blood cell count thing is sucky.


Side effects: Frustration, disease, infection, fatigue (today I am calling it fatigue), pain in shoulder, crazy-high blood pressure, and I am beginning to think that I might have some light-sensitivity which is scaring me about macular edema, but I'll worry about that tomorrow. Also, I have started to use the word "also" too much.