Monday, May 23, 2016

Relapse-Free No More

My journey with MS has had some significant ups and downs. Some of the downs include blindness, complete loss of use of two fingers on my left hand (which is devastating to a classically-trained pianist and teacher), weak arms and legs, all over numbness, impaired balance, fatigue, spasticity, anxiety, and depression.
I’ve been enjoying more of the ups in recent years; really since I switched medication to rituximab (a monoclonal antibody therapy used for RA, lymphoma, and other autoimmune diseases, which should be released in a new form and approved for MS sometime in the next year as ocrelizumab).
After switching medications from Copaxone to Rituxan I began to experience actual improvement in symptoms over time. Functions got better and relapses more infrequent. In fact, I hadn’t had a serious relapse that prompted me to call the neurology office in between routine visits in 50 months. Minor bumps, sure, but nothing big.
FIFTY MONTHS!! How cool is that?

Read this post in its entirety:
Damn, My Long Relapse-Free Streak Has Ended

1 comment:

  1. Comment by: Stephen Walker

    Hi Lisa,

    You've really been through the wringer with your early symptoms.

    Delighted you are doing better now. I keep hearing good things about ocrelizumab - here's hoping!

    ReplyDelete