Nevermind. I saw my doctor this week, and she told me that it is way too soon to draw any solid conclusions about the theory presented in that last link. She also said that a lot of the parameters and baselines the physician used were not really good barometers for measuring the way MS manifests itself in the brain. I guess blood/brain theories come around every 15-20 years. She has been in the field since the early 70s. Apparently, MS is like anything else, ideas, treatments, trends are cyclical. She also mentioned that the Italians are pretty intrepid in their blind plunge into that which they have absolutely no clue. 1/4 Italian myself, I found her insight to be fairly accurate.

So, I guess the bottom line is don't get your hopes up. I'm not sure which one, but a top neurologist in the field was quoted as saying that MS is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Meaning there are no fast answers. You have to be patient and give things time to work. An idea completely foreign to me. Patience is antithetical to my basic personality structure. I really picked the wrong disease.

So, since nothing else has seemed to work I am now trying IVIG, intravenous immune globulin. It is a solution that contains the IGG antibody. The theory is that it may bond to the antibody that triggers the autoimmune response thus rendering it inert. It is also suspected to reduce inflammation. The third potentiality is that it may suppress immune system activity. All of this is a long-winded way of saying let's try a Hail Mary pass. Clinical trials conducted in the states did not report any measurable benefit to those with secondary progressive MS. However, trials in Europe do indicate moderate gain in secondary progressive patients. This is again a treatment whose popularity swells and ebbs with the times. It is also extremely expensive. It is estimated to cost about $100 a gram. I got a jumpstart of 150 g with a maintenance dose of 77 g a month. Insurance companies love me. The upside is it is not a toxic drug, like Novantrone or methotrexate. I don't have to worry about heart failure or some other unforeseen weird contraindication, like drinking orange juice and taking hydrocodone causing a grand mal seizure. (Which might be kind of fun.)

We'll see. I've been on so many different treatments, it is starting to be schizophrenically amusing. I kind of like that it's so off the charts expensive. This month I am more interested in screwing over my insurance company. Maybe next month I'll work on the pharmaceutical industry. Although, that's going to be a much harder nut to crack.