My Road to Treatment (pt 3)

After doing much research online about the medical treatment methods, I decided I personally would prefer not to do injections. Not only do I dislike the idea of having to inject myself on a regular basis, but I am interested in new treatments which seem to have stronger results so far. There are 3 main oral options - Aubagio, Gilenya (you may have seen their colorful tv commercials recently), and Tecfidera. 

Due to the fact that these oral medications are much more potent than the injections, the side effects can be intense. Both Aubagio and Gilenya can be extremely toxic to pregnancies and should not be taken while trying to start a family. Common side effects on Aubagio include thinning of hair during the first 6 months, nausea, diarrhea, headaches and abnormal liver function. Since pregnancy is not currently a factor for me I had narrowed my choices down to Aubagio or Gilenya. Ultimately I decided to try Aubagio because I felt I could handle the potential side effects better. 

Once I decided on Aubagio, I let the clinic know so they could start the process of getting my prescription filled. The oral medications are considered specialty prescriptions so you can't just go fill them at Walgreens. They come from a specialty pharmacy and are delivered directly to you. Since Aubagio is so potent there are certain blood tests required before they can prescribe it, so I had to get additional labs done to test my liver function and make sure I wasn't pregnant. After these came back satisfactory, the specialty pharmacists at the clinic set to work submitting it to my insurance.

**this is the 3rd installment of a series - stay tuned for the next installment!**