Tecfidera update: no nausea but decline hasn't stopped! Maybe I need to give it more time. - lol!

I'm not sure yet. I've been on Tysabri for like 4 years and just recently had my blood work be JC virus positive. I see my neurologist 5/24 to discuss my positions. It just sucks cuz Tysabri is the only med that has gotten my MS under control!! But that pill might be an option for me.

I have now been on Tecfidera for almost two months. I was okay when first started but had bad reactions after the dose increased. I didn't stop taking it because I didn't have a lot of options. I decided to lower the dosage and my doctor later agreed. My doctor said that quite a few people have bad reactions when they get to the highest dose because it is increased too quickly. So i ended up going to 2 pills, for a couple weeks, then 3 for a couple weeks and now I am on the full dosage.

I had to play around with my eating and habits to find out what worked for me. I realized that regardless of what I ate, taking a pill at breakfast always upset my stomach. I was going nutty with the pills because I would take it at breakfast and then fight to keep things down for the rest of the day, which made it hard to want to eat. I didn't want to stop the pills because when I reached the highest dosage, it was the first time in ages that I was regaining feeling back in my fingers which had been numb for months.

I switched to taking my pills at lunch, which is a bigger meal for me than breakfast. This helped a lot. The other thing I found was that having protein with every meal helped my stomach.

I find I still get flushing but it is not every day. Again, if I don't eat enough or have enough protein, the flushing is noticeable. I do find though that I am tired, but I can't tell if it is the MS or the medication.

I have RRMS, and was diagnosed just recently (March 2015), so I am still learning about options and various treatments.

Don't know if that helps, but that is my current experience with Tecfidera.

Just switched to tecfidera about 2 weeks ago (from tysabri infusions)! So far there's no associated issues! I'll keep giving updates!

I've been taking Tecfidera since it was approved (in the US) for about a year & a half! I had the initial flushing of my face, neck, chest (& hands) which only lasted for approximately an hour! There have been no other side effects & it's so much easier to swallow 2 capsules daily than the dreaded injectibles! I've taken Avonex (1 1/2 years), Betaseron (1 1/2 years), Copaxone (11 years), Gilenya (1 year) and now Tecfidera! While Gilenya is also an oral drug, I relapsed on it 3 times in a year! I highly recommend Tecfidera to any MS patient!