Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Multiple Sclerosis Relapse and Solumedrol

What to Do If You Have a Relapse
The best thing you can do to manage your MS is to stay attuned to your body and become familiar with the pattern of your symptoms. Call your MS clinician if you have new symptoms or an old symptom comes back and gets more severe over time--for instance, if you have tingling in your arm in the morning and by the next day one whole side of your body is tingling.

How are MS Relapses Treated?
The good news is that not all exacerbations require treatment. Mild sensory changes (numbness, pins-and-needle sensations) or bursts of fatigue that don’t significantly impact a person’s activities can generally be left to get better on their own. If they don’t, or they expand into other symptoms, the relapse may need to be treated with a course of intravenous steroids.

For severe exacerbations (involving loss of vision, severe weakness or poor balance, for example), which interfere with a person’s mobility, safety, or overall ability to function, most neurologists recommend a short course of high-dose corticosteroids to reduce the inflammation and bring the relapse to an end more quickly. The most common treatment regimen is a 3-5 day course of intravenous Solu-Medrol® (methylprednisolone). High-dose oral Deltasone® (prednisone) may also be used.

Read this post in its entirety:

How to Manage Multiple Sclerosis Relapse: The Use of Solumedrol

6 comments:

  1. Me and Solu-Medrol, we got a thing going on. (Sing to Me and Mrs Jones)

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  2. Because my primary symptom is optic neuritis and resulting vision loss and issues (Uthoff's Sign), my new neurologist has me getting Solumedrol on a monthly basis for 6 months. It appears to be helping my fatigue and preventing relapse. I also take Rebif. Tomorrow I get the results of my latest MRI series--first in a year. Hoping for shrinking of lesions or at least no new ones.
    Julie

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  3. Dexometazone is also used (both oral and intravenous), but I have seen some people getting serious hallucinations when using that. I'd try to stick to the prednisolon or solumedrol.

    Corticosteroids also can give you "false energy". You'll feel okay for a while, but over-doing it strains your body without you noticing it, and you need to recover from it later.

    Rebif is used to reduce the contrast between "ups" and "downs".

    Be careful with your energy reserves, and only put energy in the things that are worth it.

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  4. I have never considered my runs of fatigue to be a relapse...just a pseudo exacerbation...or a stupid "just my luck" event.

    I have been told, yet not experienced, that even bouts of optic neuritis are seldom treated with steroids, here at my MS clinic..."because it doesn't change the course of the disease".

    I pity my MS doctor if I ever experience optic neuritis....

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  5. Since I no longer have exacerbations, just this slow but steady slide down the slope, corticosteroids do nothing for me anymore.

    Diane, that was a wicked, wicked song, good one!

    Andy

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  6. My optic neuritis was treated with 3 days IV solumedrol 1000mg. My opthomalogist said it is believed to protect the nerve fibers. I believe it is soothing to the nerve. I started to see better the first dose but it took a long time to get back to somewhat normal.If they didn't want to treat optic neuritis, you might consider a second opinion or see a neuro eye specialist.

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