Tecfidera – Day 5

Today is my fifth day taking Tecfidera, the half dose. It has all been very good so far – knock on wood – as I haven’t had any side effects, except for that mild burning stomach on the first night, which might have been something else. Even better yet, and maybe an unrelated event, is that the light-headedness I was experiencing the two weeks prior to starting Tecfidera is almost gone! From what I read, DMDs are not supposed to work on the multiple sclerosis symptoms, just delay the remission occurrences and progression of disability. But, maybe, it has an undocumented benefit. It might have been undocumented just because, unlike flares, brain lesions, even disability progression, which all have their tests and measures, it is hard to quantify symptom reduction. First of all, symptoms vary a lot from one person to the next. Also, they do come a go: it’s not the first time since my flare that I’ve had the light-headedness and it went away. So, if you’re reading this, and you have some MS symptoms, I don’t want to get your hopes up. But if the symptoms are tapering off because of Tecfidera, I’ll take it.

Oh, and this morning, I was a bit stupid. I took my aspirin bottle, the Tecfidera tablets and the vitamin D. I always take the aspirin 30 minutes before. This time, I wasn't thinking and took the Tecfidera before eating or taking my aspirin. I still took the aspirin right after thinking it might help with flushing.

Exercise

For those that are or were physically active, here’s a first summary of my experience so far. First of all, I’m quite physically active. I’ve been running for 12 years and doing triathlons for 6 years, from the sprint distance to half Ironman distances. This summer, I’ve been taking it relatively easy in regards to exercise. Not that I’m not training! I’m still running three times a week with intensity and a long run every Sunday. I also try to cycle regularly with long rides on Saturday, usually between 80 km and 200 km. As for swimming, I haven’t been very good at going to the swim workouts, mostly because of lack of time and motivation.

As for actual races, that’s were I’ve taken it easy. There is a big end-of-project rush going on at work this summer, that’s why I didn’t commit to any race. I didn’t know for sure, how busy I was going to be: not extremely busy, after all.  I’ve only had to work, so far, two week-end days and two holidays. But, again, it’s hard committing to races as you usually need to register ahead. Also, MS is new to me, and managing it and starting on a long term treatment also has its share of uncertainty.

But although I haven’t done any triathlons, so far, this year. I did do a few running races:

-          Half marathon in February (called the Hypothermic half J)

I raced this half a couple of weeks before my first MS episode.

It was the second year I do this race, it occurs in cold weather (around -15 degrees Celcius), and on snowy ground, although packed snow most of the time, but loose snow at some points. I did pretty well and was very happy of my results! I almost beat my PR which was set in spring on bare ground and arrived in the top 3% of finishers with a 1h 36m finish.

Half marathon in April

This was my first race after my first flare up. I was already registered a while ago, and I felt better after the Solumedrol treatments and some rest.

I beat my PR by about 5 minutes, finishing in 1h 31m. Conditions were perfect and I didn’t notice anything particular related to MS symptoms.

-          A 10k run in June. I registered the morning of the race. I haven’t done a 10k outside of a triathlon for a very very long time, probably since my first years running. I did very well in finishing just over 41 minutes especially considering there was a hill to climb at each of the two loops. I also placed 12^th, but it was a small race with 230 participants. Again, I didn’t feel any of the MS symptoms during or after the race.

Those were the only three races I registered for. I did register and do a long organised bike ride: a 200 km ride that was more like 210 km. It went very well, tired at the end, as I would expect.

What else? I’ve been convinced by friends to register for a trail run in the mountains this September, a 28k with 1000 meters positive elevation.  I’ve been doing trail runs for my long runs, lately, in preparation. More about trail running in the next post since, it has it’s challenges with regards to MS.