Totally up-do-date

Initially I had a post almost written and ready to go about fun ways to keep up with your workout routines even if you don’t have a lot time.

BUT! I finally had an appointment in the Tønsberg hospital last week and was able to meet with my MS Nurse Anne Bøe.

I have to say that it was quite a bit of a hassle to get into the system here. Things take time but they are done properly and once the initial stress is over (like now) it’s a really nice change from Greece. For one, if you have a prescription for medicine, you can leave it at the pharmacy of your choice and just get back whenever you need said medicine. Much easier for a hare brain like me to not have to deal with finding a safe spot to store all my paperwork..

The actual reason I am writing this post, however,  is that I got a super duper advanced new injection device for my tri-weekly Rebif Injection called Rebismart! It’s not only much easier to handle it’s also much more convenient for travelling.
I had no idea that my normal Rebiject pen was something of a totally outdated thing to do. We realized that when we had to apply for a new prescription for the medicine here. Since my diagnosis there were three different type of injection methods introduced and I had no clue -.- If you are like me, go talk to your doctor, nurse, dog or whoever you talk to about your medicine and check that they keep you up-to-date. There was also a new device for single use syringes but it was all look through and stuff. Hell no, I do NOT want to see the syringe and what happens..thank you VERY much. I am scared enough of needles as is..

Anyway, back to the matter at hand: It’s a little device powered by batteries (nope, not THAT one..) that stores information of where and when your last injection was. It also stores up to 10 injection doses so you only have to change the needles and nothing else (that’s the “handy for travelling” part). I always felt pretty awkward explaining to the airport personnel why I am carrying a bag full of syringes while there were tons of people waiting behind me, listening in on our conversation. Bad enough that I always felt like a terrorist trying to smuggle a bomb when I had to open my bags and show the content. I could really do without having the explain my life’s story at an airport x-ray station and convince people that I seriously wasn’t trying to put together a hand made explosive device on the airplane..

Conveniently enough I got an exercise kit with a dummy solution to practice with, since I am using up my old rebiject and its out-dated syringes before I can try my little computerized toy for the first time. I had a lot of fun customizing the injection speed, depth and other nifty new titbits already, though. I also added my name to the display (woooooooo….personalized medicine thingamajig, how advanced!).The injection procedure is all automatic with nice little sound indicators in between whenever a phase is over.

As added bonus I got a totally new much nicer looking travel cooling bag (with smaller ice compartments) and a lot of other little things including a super colorful nice Rebif bag (I am such a sucker for swag bags and goodies!). I also finally have an official MS pass/card which I can show at the aiports by just pulling it out of my wallet. Beats the A4 paper printout that looked like some dodgy backdoor scientist wrote it. Even though it was an official Merck Serono paper..

I LOVE getting new toys – now someone get Merck Serono and Apple to join up and make a Siri enabled Rebif injector – pretty please? That might make for some hilarious distraction..

So, are you guys still using old injection methods? Got newer ones already? Want me to test it and write about it as soon as I started using it? Any funny ideas of what a Siri-injector might talk about? 😉