Has anyone missed one or more doses of their MS medication? I’ve now missed two of my regular Avonex injections (once weekly dosage and wonder if anyone has experienced any adverse reactions from missed medication. (Hopefully normal service will resume this week).
No , delayed by a few days but not missed. So dont know if there is any adverse reactions . I wouldn’t have thought so
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Does the medication information leaflet not say something about missing doses? When I was on Extavia (same as Beterferon but made under licence by another company) I was told to take it as soon as possible after I realised I’d missed a dose. The leaflet said the same thing. The nurse also told me that delaying a dose, say, not injecting on Christmas day though not the best thing would probably not do any real harm. Neurologist’s are worried though about keeping up the doses in general. I’d guess that delaying a weekly dose by AA day, say, would be relatively safe but wouldn’t like to skip a week. Your nurse would be a better information source, of course.
Best wishes.
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I’ve missed two doses of Tecfidera over the last 15 months I’ve been on the drug. One capsule twice a day. They come in a blister pack with days of the week with night and day. I just carry on as normal if I miss a dose and don’t take a double dose. I didn’t notice anything from missing it.
A few months ago I wasn’t giving taking medication my full attention and took both morning and night doses in a space of a few minutes. I was multi-tasking lots of things at the time and was a bit absent minded. The side effects were a lot more flushing to my whole body.
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Hi Jenny
I don’t mean to be negative here, but surely when you inject once per week you realise on the next day that you’ve missed your injection and do it a day (or even 2 days late). Is there a subconscious reason you’ve missed doses? Or is it just hard to remember because it is only once per week? Or have you been ill so didn’t take your meds?
Maybe one answer is to switch to Plegridy, which is interferon 1a (like Avonex) but is fortnightly and subcutaneous rather than intra-muscular. You could the set yourself a fortnightly reminder to take it. Subcutaneous is much easier than into the muscle so if there’s a slight reluctance to push the needle in, it is definitely a simpler prospect for your brain to handle (I’ve done both - Avonex for 4 months then Copaxone for 5 years).
If your life isn’t fixed as to routine, maybe it’s problematic to take something that isn’t part of your day to day habits so you could ask about switching to a daily pill, like Tecfidera. Sometimes when a drug therapy is more frequent it’s easier to remember. Or even to a daily injectable, like Copaxone.
If I’ve got completely the wrong end of the stick, apologies, just trying to help.
Sue
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Hi all,
Many thanks for your very helpful responses.
I’ve been taking Avonex for just over two years by weekly injection - there appears to have been a delay with authorisation for the release of the medication for Bupa to deliver to my home, therefore sending me into a mild panic about missing two injections. I will be calling them again tomorrow from work (not always easy) and will hopefully get a more positive response.
Apologies Jenny, it didn’t even occur to me that it wasn’t your fault. I won’t make that mistake again.
Sue