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

Random Thoughts and Sooner Football

Today's post is going to be a bit of stream-of-consciousness writing. Just to give you fare warning.

First of all, thank you guys so much for the support you freely give to me. I appreciate that more than you probably realize.

It's so cool that you've voted for me in the Best Patient's Blog category of Medgadget's annual Best Medblogs awards. If you haven't yet, you can do that here (but only one vote per IP address is allowed).

According to Feedburner there are over 120 folks subscribed to my dribblings, which doesn't count subscriptions through Google (I think). I don't know who you all are, but thanks for turning in. I suspect that there have been quite a few pharma-related subscribers. But lately, I've been giving pharma an easy time of it. Maybe I need to turn my head in their direction again.

Since I started writing for The Health Central Network, I haven't posted as frequently on my own blog. I'm sorry for that. Health Central has been getting some of my better work, and with some restructuring they are doing, I need to evaluate how best to spend my limited energies.

Speaking of energies, physical therapy is going well and I'm slowly beginning to see some changes. Walking with more confidence. Having a bit more endurance. Getting stronger. All very good things.

I wonder, though, if I haven't just traveled through a mild exacerbation. I'm thinking this because I was experiencing more numbness and tingling in my hands (again) and the difficulty standing up had come back (or had rather not really gone away completely since August).

With this crazy disease, it's hard to know what exactly is going on. All I know is that I started to feel noticeably better in the past week.

Still struggling with mood though. Depression is such a nasty beast. Once you get complacent and comfortable at a certain level, and stop staring it eye-to-eye every day for at least a moment, it sits in the corner and begins to grow (while you're not looking) until it's big enough to barrel though things and over shadow your every move.

I am so very thankful that through this blog I have met so many wonderful people. I have developed relationships while go beyond the boundary of this screen. I love it when I can actually help somebody by offering my support and lending an understanding ear, just as there are folks in the blog world to whom I can turn in a moment of need.

It's comforting to know that there are some around here with whom I can talk about other aspects of my life besides MS. You know who you are and I thank you for that.

Something else that's been hanging over me - I've been neglectful in keeping up with propering labeling posts. If I'm not posting as frequently in the near future, hopefully I'm adding labels and tags so that visitors can find what stuff there is here more easily. So some housekeeping is in order.

So......if you're still reading this, I've got to say "WOW". You are dedicated.

I must say that tonight is a big night. It is the football game which will decide the National Championship team for the 2008 College football season. My vote goes to the Oklahoma Sooners. Oklahoma is playing Florida tonight at 8:00pm EST.

"Boomer Sooner"

So that's it for now. Thank you for listening.