Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the nervous system, degrading the protective sheath around nerves and impairing nerve transmission throughout the body, with no specific known causes at present beyond potential genetic factors.
I have a fairly mild form of multiple sclerosis, i.e. I have had one clinical presentation of the disease at the beginning of 2019 in which I lost sensation across most of my body (from the chest down) which slowly returned over several weeks.
The disease is monitored with regular brain MRIs which look for “lesions”, aka irregularities in the MRI that indicate nerve damage.
Following the appearance of a new small non-symptomatic lesion at the beginning of 2021, I have been placed on a low-strength MS medication, Copaxone, in the hopes of preventing any more severe presentations in the future. I administer it via self-injections into the stomach three times a week, rotating through injection spots so as not to cause too much damage to the skin from repeated injections. I’ve not experienced any side effects as of yet.