i keep accidently closing windows so i will submitt many times...

1. at first eat when taking tech. be eating before and after taking the pill so you gastric juices are working when the pill goes down and for a little while after the tech gets to your gut,(in the middle of meal)

your looking for fat & protein. not over full but satisfied--a chicken or turkey sandwich is the most perfect(?) i don't know why but it is.

over time yoyu will need less & less food. start with a sandwhich then when your comfortable with that you can try a glass of miluntil you don't need to eat food at all, with you pill. I'm cautios it took me 3 months to get to the poingt of taking my pill on an empty stomach.

2. Everyone gets side affects, no one know what they will be for each person? But the tiimje after takin\g the pill will depend on how fast as person digest their food. Starty with the doses 12 bhours apart until you learn when side affects hit you depending on the type of meal you had.


you might digest breakfast rally fast so you c an take your evening pill sooner than 12 hours? sam with evening pill and how long it takes you to digest while your sleeping depending on the heaviness of the food---you will learn this for your self.

3. My doc did not want me to go on tech she wanted me to stay on tysabri--so she warned me that tech caused severe gastric isdsues, that might make me wake up in pain & its too new for her top know wjhat to do about it.......................

This pain thing, i'm someonbe with a tought gut. but there are quiter a few post of people complaing about it---now that i have started i think the pain is just gas pain...gas pain can hurt...but its not a reason to stop a med BUIT at night if you haven't prepared to prevent it you just have to go thnrough the whole night holdiong your stomach & hoping it will end soon..


be generous with OTC anti gass remedies.....I used anti gas-X for the longest of all the OtC i used. I took anti gas-x a half hour befote i took the pill.

I took bean-o- during the meal.

Thanks for asking this and nnyl1, thanks for answering. My neuro wants me to start this soon. My LDN is not working for me, which is upsetting. I'm a bit nervous about the gastro issues. Thanks for your helpful diet hints.
Cloudsinthesky, please keep us posted as to how things go for you. I, for one, am interested. Best of everything as you begin Tec.

4. I used OtC liberally at first, then i reduced the otc pills as i felt comfortable the side affecft was not an issue for me...

MORNING: 1. phillips colon health,

half hour before taking pill:( both morning & evening)
1. aspirin(generic or bayor),1-150 mg zantac, 1 Ga-X

while eating bean-o if i feel the meal w/pill might make me gasie.

between pills I chewed a tums if i had any issue with acid reflux or sour stomach or stomach pain---to much tums will cause constipation, so you want to use as needed

The famous side affect of Flushin is just a skin reaction, that the aspirin shoud prevent...if the aspirin doesn't go up in skin reaction(allergy med)---

if 1 aspirin doesn't prevent them try 2 aspirins, if that doesn't do it try a claritin-D, still doesn't prevent them try benadryl..

tech FLUSHING it less uncomfortable than a hot flass becaue hot flashes have sweating. Tech flushes I didn't have swaetinj i just feft hoy for a minute & then cooled down like it had never happened...
The appearance of a techj fluish is more dramatic if you watch it while it is happening. I'm glad i was wasrned about that or i would have thought there was something seriously wrong... No telling when a flush will hit, first time for me i was brushing my teeth infront of the bathroom mirror---it looked like a red painful sunbur,felt hot but didn't hurt in a minute it was like it had never happened..and the sunburn climbed up my face there was a red line starting from my chin, going up my nose, skipping my eyes and going to my forehead. I got a thermometer out & checked my temperature, no temperature......

i don't think i had my first episode of flushing until 2-3 weeks after i started tech. 3 months later i still get them occsionally, not all the time. i still take an aspirin a half hour before my tech, sometimes it prevents it bu its not bothersom enough to do anything about it if it doesn't

I still take the morning colon health becaus my issue is constipation, i started colon health for tech but i like it so i9 continue, that & the aspirin, all other OTC I'm no longer doing and i take tech on an empty stomach now.

i found bannas really helpful to eat with tech when i didn't do a meal.

now i'm done. that all i have, it worked for me.

my BIGEST mistake i made, i was so afraid of not eating enough to prevent side affects + i just really like to eat alot, i used startin tech as a reason to gorge on found, for about the first week i didn't feel too good from overeasting and too much"candyh" i thouhght i had an excuse to eat(My mistake, i had gastric discomfort from olvereating)

that chicken sandwich really got me out of thaty and i noticed others wrote chicken or turkey sandwiches were perfect: a mix of protien & some fat

Thanks for this amazing advice nnyl1! I really appreciate it. I hope I will be able to handle the side effects and do well on the drug.

2 more things-----titration of dosage is 1xe. the first weeek start at a pills that are of half dose (120 mg) then on 2nd week it jumps up to 240mg...i was concerned and worried about that big of a jump was going to start the side affects of the first week all over again---But I no change when the dosage was doubled.---but i was very careful about my OTC that week---------

2nd-- one person has died while taking tech, of pnemonia or something like that....it is believed she tried to lower the dose by cutting the pills in half....NEVER OPEN THE CAPSULE TO LOWER THE DOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tech is a powder inside the capsule if the powder is accidently inhaled into the lungs while taking it---it will cause some type of mostly fatal pneumonia.(uncomfortable death) so ***IMPORTANT***DON'T OPEN THE CAPSULE TO SEE WHAT INSIDE OR REDUCE THE DOSE. DON"T CHEW THE CAPSULE SWALLOW THE CAPSULE HOLE WITH FOOD OR DRINK***IMPORTANT***

Good luck w/the start of this..I found it not to be horribly bad because I so hated shots.. biggest thing for me is flushing, gastro has been here & there...flushing can happen to me up to 2hours afterwards, suxs but thats the way it works for me...i wish u the best and hopefully it will work for all of us taking it...Happy New Year!

Thanks for the information about opening the pill. I'm sorry to hear it had such disastrous effects. :(
I remember reading on here, that some people even had some symptom improvement. That would be great :)
Best wishes to all for the new year!

I started Tec back in October 2013, it's been working quite well for me!! The first couple of months though, I did experience nausea and some diarrhea. That soon fell away though and now the only side effects I experience are the flushing and itching! It drives me crazy, but I'd rather have this going on than those damn needles! lol
Best of luck to you!!

To be honest the side effects suck. I told myself I would get through them----No more needles!!! I was not turning back. Load up on probiotic vitamins, Zantac (ask dr. for a prescription so much cheaper that way), baby aspirin and pepto bismol tablets. Try and stay ahead of the discomfort by taking Zantac 30 minutes before taking tec. One thing I did was drink baking soda and water. It helped a lot for the heart burn. Ask your doctor to start you on a slow taper---that helps a lot of people.

Many of us had side effects start on week 3 and they lasted 60 days and then the side effects went away. My side effect at first was heartburn but then it turned to throwing up 2x a day. It was like clock work---4:00 and 12:00. I had time to put my hair in a pony tail lol. Great easy weight loss too. How did I get through it? Everyday I told myself no more needles!!!!!

I am so happy I stuck with it and have never missed a dose. Have I noticed an improvement in symptoms? Maybe some days but ms is unpredictable.

Some people feel there symptoms worsen after starting it and yes my legs were worse for about 2 weeks but I think it's because I had a washout period of 3 months from taking Tysabri. Hopefully your doctor doesn't make you wait. My doctor no longer makes people wait.

There is a Facebook page for tec support from others which helped me not feel so alone. I wish you luck and feel free to message if you need advice. Remember No More Needles!!!!

thank you punky-for saying what i was trying to express with otc, just TRY TO STAY AHEAD OF SIDE AFFECTS.then stop taking an otc when i felt comfortable that was not a problem...but i tried to stay ahead of side affects. i have had improvement in some stuff but the unpredictability of ms--who know it might have been weather related? getting a new furnace in apartment. i just had 3 mo. neuro apointment, next one is in 6 months---i don't fall anymore in my last apointment i said my leg would just give out, its hard to remember that was happening 3 mo. ago. if she hadn't reminded me i would have forgotten, i was falling in bathroom & on steps. i complained of increase fatigue and she and i thought it was not enough excersize. i got an elliptical trainer for xmas. waiting for 1 part to be shipped, but i hope that takes care of fatigue---WEATHER, SAD, LACK OF EXCERSIZE, WHO KNOWS IF TECH CAUSED INCREASED FATIGUE? i'm working onj it with excersize