I have great news. I have made my goal of getting fit. I have lost over 102 lbs. and my waist is 39 inches. I think that is good news because at one time I was 300 lbs. and had a waist of 55 inches. That was as of April of 2007 and boy I look back at pictures of my self and boy how I have changed. For a person that spends his day in a wheelchair all day from the time I get up in the mornig till Igo to bed. I have MS and that is a bummer. You know it is rough on you but also on your family has a lot to deal with.
My wife and I go to a support group that helps us to fellowship with other people and couples with MS.
My MS support group last Saturday had a guest speaker come and give us an up date on what is new for the treatment of MS. He was Dr. Daniel Wynn and his nurse Kathy. He gave a great talk.
Dr. Daniel Wynn is the Director of Clinical research for Consultants in Neurology in Northbrook, Illinois and Co-Director of the MS Center.
He said by this coming Spring that there might be a pill to take instead of getting those shots or IVs.For the person that just been told they have MS. It can be used for the early treatment.
He talked about two studies that have been done with good results in both studies.
The one was coladribine is a tablet treatment MS Orally (clarity) trail was released last week by Merk Serono.
The other drug that shows good promis is Fingolimod (FTY720) oral medication for the treatment of MS.
Since all the major treatment options for MS are currently injection or infusion based, a safe, effective oral medication for MS would be a breakthrough. Merck is not the only pharmaceutical company in the race to be first-to-market with an oral treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. Novartis AG is giving Merck a run for their money. They are actively pursuing approval for their own version of an oral MS medication, FTY720 (Fingolimod). Formal requests for approval are expected to be submitted later this year in both the US and Europe. Boy would that be great to have a treatment for MS in an oral form that would mean no more SHOTS and sore places on your body.
He dose not talk very good about Tysabri. There have been an increase in cases with PML. But he said it is up to the person to decide to take or not to take. This is just a little bit of the talk that he gave. I will have more about these two treatments in later post.
These two drugs show great promise as to be the first oral drugs to take for MS. I will have more info about these two drugs in later post.
ReplyDeleteTerrific post, Jim. Thank you for taking time to get it out there in such a personal way. Dealing with MS every day is plenty, but losing all that weight, being productive and being encouraging to others is very inspiring and helpful. Way to go!
ReplyDeletePenny