In 1993, budding journalist Andrea Lindsley worked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in an Alabama newsroom as she focused on building the career she’d long dreamt of. At 24, her plan was abruptly interrupted when she began experiencing hand numbness that slowly spread throughout the right side of her body. She eventually went blind in her right eye. “My speech was so bad, I had to be taken off the air,” she remembers.A neurologist explained her symptoms were likely due to stress, but that if it comforted her, he could complete an MRI. When he later called confirming her MS diagnosis, Andrea’s first question was, “Am I going to die?”“You’re not going to die, but we don’t know much about it,” was his response.Over 30 years ago, treatment options for MS were in development, but not yet available for the masses. “So, I just went and lived my life — I had exacerbations. I moved to Nashville, and my new doctor said, “You have to be on medication.” So, in 1998, she began Copaxone, a treatment so new that the nurses weren’t confident about how to administer the shot. “They were reading the instructions. It hurt so bad,” she said. Knowing the injection would be part of her daily at-home routine, she nervously called the Copaxone 1-800 number and was paired with a nurse who coached her through how to take the medication — the daily treatment she would take for 16 years.
