Just been having a chat with my neighbour and she asked do you need to be taking all your medication? All medication has side effects and how do you then know what is a symptom and what is a side effect? This has got me thinking I am UnDx at the mo and waiting for another MRI, one minute the Neurologist says its not MS, then we are not looking at MS yet and the next he says we will do a lower spine MRI to look for MS! I asked him well if its not MS what is it, he has no answers for me, but we can treat symptoms. So maybe if I did stop taking my medication, slowly on the one that needs it, I might feel better for being drug free and I might present with a symptom that makes them think, hang on we know what’s going on here. Any ideas?
In my opinion, there’s no point in taking a med if it’s not needed or if the costs (ie side effects) outweigh the benefits. It’s hard to tell with MS sometimes though because things tend to change.
I reduce my meds occasionally to see if I still need them, but I would advise anyone trying this to do one med at a time and to do it very slowly because coming off meds can cause side effects too. I would also do it with the help of a GP, if only so I can get lower strength pills to change the dose more easily.
Karen x