@hugmachine 

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hugmachine

Stopped treatment....feel fantastic...is this normal?

Hi everyone! So i was on Extavia for a year and had to come off it in september as it was damaging my kidneys. I was really worried about stopping the medication as i'd had various continuing symptoms for the whole year i was taking it and didnt want to relapse. However after 4 weeks of being drug free i started to feel better. In the last month i have felt amazing. My insomnia is gone, as are the pins and needles and balance problems. My fatigue had diminished to almost nothing and i feel like my head is clear for the first time in nearly 2 years. My husband is overjoyed as he has his wife back (and the house has never been so organised!) So of course i'm worried haha i keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and something bad to happen. My Gp and MS nurse tell me not to worry and to just enjoy it so i will but i wanted to ask if anyone else has ever experienced the same thing??? does it last????????? My neurologist is fantastic and we had agreed that i would start a diffrent course of treatment once i had been off the extavia for three months but now i dont know if i want to take anything else.........any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.
@Marjolie

Hi <a href='https://shift.ms/community/people/hugmachine/' rel='nofollow'>@hugmachine</a> First off, well done you! You've tried Extavia, and it didn't work, but, (and it's a big but!) at least you tried something different to manage the unmanageable (at times) I've been off extavia now for three months, and truth be told, I'm not sure if I want to try anything else (Extavia was enough to put me off serious meds) I didn't take kindly to sticking needles in my body and expecting miracles when there were none to be had. I've had steroids,(they were better than anticipated) and now I'm just sticking to my happy pills for as long as I can stand them. (or drive everyone mad with prescribed joy) Not sure if the feelings of euphoria will pass for some time, it seems odd, but I think once the joy of not injecting yourself passes, a new feeling of completion and determination kicks in (disclaimer: this may just be wishful thinking/enforced positivity/or the body's own natural endorphins taking over for a while) either way, I hope you find a new path, it may be rocky at times and slippy in others, but you will find a path that's right for you. I agree with the Nurse and the GP- Enjoy the ride for now, the future will bring all sorts of surprises, best just enjoy the moment... Marjolie x

@lightningduck

Well, I think the thing is that the treatments are not supposed to make you feel better, they are just supposed to prevent a relapse. They may even make you feel worse. So feeling good after going off them is a short term gain but a long term time bomb caveat: this is all based on my understanding of what the treatments do; I have no direct experience