I have been taking Plegridy since July 19 and with my first injection it seemed fine. Then with my second one I think maybe I locked it so that’s why I didn’t see the green tick.
With my third dose on August 16 I injected it and after a few hours I started feeling chills and shivering. Flu like symptoms. Plus I was very fatigued. Plus the site where I injected has a pink mark and itchy for more than a week. I got the flu like symptoms, chills and fatigue with my 4th dose two weeks later. Plus again the site a week later is itchy.
Is that normal? So that’s just something I would just have to be used to with the medication? Or it’s not normal? It’s fine, I will have to learn to manage and just not plan to go out or anything, I guess, on the day of the injection.
I will try to call the nurse or speak to the doctor, but wouldn’t mind hearing from others what their thoughts are on this, as well.
Hi there, have a look at the post from @MariaB123 under symptoms and treatments: MRI shows my MS is stable. She uses Plegridy and I think she found that the side effects died down after a few months use.
Getting an erythema is normal. You can’t avoid it. The injection site will be red for 10 days or so, and it may get a bit itchy between days 3 and 6. Just use some witch hazel cream on it, it works miracles. The MS nurse shared this with me.
Shivers, fatigue, migrane, muscle pain, difficulty walking and feeling weak, even slightly high temperature, are nornal 24-48 hours after you inject with plegridy. Good old paracetamol works well on it. When you first start taking plegridy, you experience these symptomps a lot more intensively. It feels like cr*p to start with, in the first 2-3 months, to the point you want to give up and stop the treatment, BUT it does get a lot better over time. After about 6 months of taking it, I just feel under the weather for about 24 hours after the plegridy injection, I may take paracetamol a couple of times during that day, just in case (sometimesI don’t even need it). I inject on Wednesday evening. Thursday I feel so so, I take paracetamol just in case, to kill the migraine and any bone and muscle pain that I may occasionally get, but on Friday morning I wake up as normal, and even hit my exercise class at 10am.
I am not saying that plegridy is for everyone. Yet, it does get better and better; it always depends on your own body though. The itchy injection site is a ‘pain’, though, that will stay overtime and happen every single time you inject. You can control it with witch hazel and try not to wet the injection area with hot water for 24 hours after you inject. Before injecting, place an ice pack on the area used for injection, it also helps. Avoid the swimming pool with bleechy water too for a couple of days after injecting, also jacuzzi and sauna for 3 days after injecting. The heat is going to make your erythema worse. Avoid the heat and direct sunlight in the injection area. I sunbathed in Greece, and it was a big mistake because my injection site turned very itchy and a bit swollen.
Hi, I started with Plegridy end of July - 1st injection was ok although on days 8 & 9 I felt flu like symptoms. 2nd injection was faulty and had to wait a few days to get the 2nd dose delivered to me, was not good. Had a site reaction, really itchy but a cool pack did take the itch away, just left the redness. I also had sickness and diarrhea - not sure if that was a side effect or a bug, and was so fatigue. 3rd injection has been ok, so far site redness and now on day 9 and today was fatigue, but hoping to go to work tomorrow.
Stay in touch and let me know how you get on, we can compare notes
I am doing all right. A recent MRI scan has shown that I have more inflammation on my brain but I figured that was normal after a few years now.
Plegridy still leaves me with a very itchy and pinky red injection site for a few days. I have been on it for a year now. I don’t get shivers any more but do feel a little fluey the next day. I take my injection in the evening or just before I sleep. I used to take it earlier, but I found that going to sleep helped with the flu-like symptoms. My flu-like symptoms are nearly as bad as the first couple of months - when I would have the shakes and shivers. Now I just feel tired and feel like I have the cold or the flu and get quite cold.
A not so fun symptom I developed last year is sometimes having the urgent need to pee. Haha. I know it is not funny but I have got to laugh to feel good. I have reduced my coffee intake and over a few months, I seem to have been able to manage well enough.
I’d appreciate some tried and tested recommendations for soothing the itchiness.
It’s the new activity showing on the scan that bothers me. I think your priority should be reviewing with the medics whether it’s time to upgrade to a more effective DMT. I’ve been down that road myself and wish I had had that conversation earlier.
I have had a conversation with the doctor about it. She’s recommending a stronger DMT.
There’s one where (I have forgotten the name, so will ask her again and write it down next time I see her) it’s a monthly injection but it is not safe for trying to conceive - BUT apparently it can wear off after only 3 months if I stop using it and try to conceive and would be safe for that..
Or to increase the dosage of plegridy.
I will speak to the doctor about the different options.