Copaxone itching driving me nuts

[essdipity]

I've been on Copaxone almost 2 months. For the first several weeks the only reaction I had was moderately painful stinging and aching after the shot, lasting about half an hour, plus some tenderness at the site. Now that part is only 5 or 10 minutes. In the meantime, though, other reactions have REALLY set in.

The thigh area is the worst, but all injections give me big red spots, lumps, welts, and sometimes bruises, lasting nearly a week. This is all ugly, but manageable. The itching, though, is what I can barely stand. That starts a day or so after the shot and continues for 2 or 3 days. So I always have several areas that really want to be scratched. Yikes.

I take an antihistamine for airborne allergies, and that does nothing for the itching. I use Benedryl spray, which helps for a couple of hours. The Copaxone people have no other recommendations.

Because of my allergies I'm an itchy person generally, and my nerve endings seem to be hypersensitive. Sometimes it feels that my bod has issued to general alarm to scratch everywhere.

I don't plan to stop Copaxone so I'll just have to bear it, but I sure would appreciate any suggestions for dealing with this maddening problem. My body is trying to tell me something!

ess

[essdipity]

Glad I checked in here just now. The jury is still out on my various remedies. I was disappointed that the betamethasone D cream (presciption strength and supposedly very potent) at first seemed to do nothing. What a downer. It's to be applied twice a day, so I use it right after my morning shower and then later on. Hard to say now how good it is.

I've also now had 4 Singulair. It's also hard to say whether this is working, but maybe it needs time to build up. I don't know whether I can take a regular antihistamine too, since Singulair isn't helping my airborne allergies much. I hesitate to try both and don't want to dry out everything.

Anyway, in the early to mid-afternoon each day I've been getting wild itch sensations each day, regardless of meds.  These are coming at every recent injection site at once, so I have 4 or 5 places going nuts. This might be correlated to a certain number of hours after the injection, when everything sort of reawakens.

As to trying regular manual injections, I've done that. My Autoject thingie broke at one point and it was 4 days before I got replacements from Shared Solutions. No difference in site reactions.  Too bad!

I've also begun reducing the depth of the injections, and am now down to about 4 1/2 or 5. Don't think I can go lower. I seem to be getting fewer welts, but more large and very itchy bruises which last and last. Scratching even mildly around the sites causes bumps nearby that sometimes bleed or form scabs. Yikes. Am I nuts to keep doing this?

Well, the weekends are for thigh injections, and they've been the worst, so I'll see how that goes this weekend with the cream and the Singulair.

ess

[doublevision1]

I hope the Singulair and the cream work for you.

The only other thing that came to my mind as I read your posts is maybe a strong presciption-strength cortisone cream?  I used it once a long time ago for skin reaction from a totally different cause.  I was itchy like crazy all over my back and the cortisone started to work almost instantly and by the next day was resolved.  I don't know what the product was exactly; it belonged to my cousin and she uses it for bad psoriasis.  It was a potent dose as I recall.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

db1

[Heather3418]

I heard McB (Michael) say the same thing.  Do you have less injection site reactions without the autoinjector?  Please tell me all about it.  My body looks like one big welt since I started Copaxone in January.

Tell me MORE...thanks in advance.  All of us taking Copaxone welcome your advice.

Heather

[squeezybear]

I find when I use the auto injector it leaves welts and itches more.  If you are using the autoinjector try doing it w/o it and see what happens.

[jensequitur]

Actually, be careful with that scratching.  I still have red blood blisters from scratching too hard.

[Momzilla]

Oy!

Sorry to hear about your irritating annoyance!  Itching is so miserable!

I really think Singulair is a fantastic drug.  It's been a miracle for our oldest son with asthma.  It helps with his animal allergies, as well.  Our second youngest takes it, as well, for asthma/allergies.  It works in a way no other drug had before.  It stops (or at least inhibits) the allergic reaction before it starts.  

If I recall, it may take two weeks to build up in your system before you notice the full clinical effect.

I'm crossing my fingers!  Don't cross yours -- you still need them to scrrrrratch!

Hugs,

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