Sept 13, 2013
Well, we received the results back from the weeks' worth of testing. As I had expected, that outside of MS, I am actually a really healthy guy! Everything came back within normal ranges, with one exception. They found a small 2.5mm kidney stone in my right kidney! I can honestly say that I do not want to deal with that right now too! Hopefully it doesn't decide to pass while I am going through this process...that would add insult to injury.
Surprisingly (or not), my MRI came back with no enhancing lesions. What does this mean, you ask? Well, the good thing is that I have lots of time to explain! When an MS attack occurs, our bodies' own lymphocytes (immune cells) attack the myelin around our nerves. Myelin is like the wrapping you see around an electrical wire. These areas of attack represent inflammation and show up as 'enhancing lesions' on an MRI. This is generally seen as a favorable, because this treatment's aimed at destroying all of those autoreactive lymphocytes. In my case, however, my symptoms are worse than in years past, but we are not seeing these areas of active inflammation.
So does this mean the treatment will not work? Not at all. Much of our current technology and MRI's do not possess the capability to pick up on inflammation on a microscopic level. It does not mean that I don't have inflammation, just that it is likely occult. I actually possess several of the prognostic factors that should result in a positive outcome. There is some very interesting research coming out of the university of Calgary that deals with a very powerful MRI that can lead to picking up on active lesions years ahead of today's standard. Hopefully it will become the standard in the future, but as with all research, it is often quite a lag between discovery and implementation into regular practice.
Dr. Fedorenko was very thorough with his discussion with Tanya and I and took the time to answer all of our questions. I wonder if other international patients ask so many questions? One thing I have done is researched every facet of this treatment. To his credit, he was inviting of the questions and made sure we understood before moving on. He is truly a credit to medicine.
Now that the decision has been made to go ahead with treatment, we enter into the mobilization phase of care. We started with a 250mg infusion of Solumedrol (steroid) IV this afternoon. I have also been given some gastro-protective medications to take before meals (likely a PPI). Tonight I
will start my first of a series of stimulation injections. First shot occurs at 11pm, the second at 3am.
The aim of these is to stimulate my bone marrow to overproduce stem cells and release them into the blood stream. This will occur for the next 4-5 days, followed by apheresis, which is the stem cell collection. Let's hear it for my stem cells! Giddyup!
Well, we received the results back from the weeks' worth of testing. As I had expected, that outside of MS, I am actually a really healthy guy! Everything came back within normal ranges, with one exception. They found a small 2.5mm kidney stone in my right kidney! I can honestly say that I do not want to deal with that right now too! Hopefully it doesn't decide to pass while I am going through this process...that would add insult to injury.
Surprisingly (or not), my MRI came back with no enhancing lesions. What does this mean, you ask? Well, the good thing is that I have lots of time to explain! When an MS attack occurs, our bodies' own lymphocytes (immune cells) attack the myelin around our nerves. Myelin is like the wrapping you see around an electrical wire. These areas of attack represent inflammation and show up as 'enhancing lesions' on an MRI. This is generally seen as a favorable, because this treatment's aimed at destroying all of those autoreactive lymphocytes. In my case, however, my symptoms are worse than in years past, but we are not seeing these areas of active inflammation.
So does this mean the treatment will not work? Not at all. Much of our current technology and MRI's do not possess the capability to pick up on inflammation on a microscopic level. It does not mean that I don't have inflammation, just that it is likely occult. I actually possess several of the prognostic factors that should result in a positive outcome. There is some very interesting research coming out of the university of Calgary that deals with a very powerful MRI that can lead to picking up on active lesions years ahead of today's standard. Hopefully it will become the standard in the future, but as with all research, it is often quite a lag between discovery and implementation into regular practice.
Dr. Fedorenko was very thorough with his discussion with Tanya and I and took the time to answer all of our questions. I wonder if other international patients ask so many questions? One thing I have done is researched every facet of this treatment. To his credit, he was inviting of the questions and made sure we understood before moving on. He is truly a credit to medicine.
Now that the decision has been made to go ahead with treatment, we enter into the mobilization phase of care. We started with a 250mg infusion of Solumedrol (steroid) IV this afternoon. I have also been given some gastro-protective medications to take before meals (likely a PPI). Tonight I
will start my first of a series of stimulation injections. First shot occurs at 11pm, the second at 3am.
The aim of these is to stimulate my bone marrow to overproduce stem cells and release them into the blood stream. This will occur for the next 4-5 days, followed by apheresis, which is the stem cell collection. Let's hear it for my stem cells! Giddyup!