MS Medications

Since I haven't put up an About Me page at this point, I should probably start my first post off by saying that I have MS (this is not a blog about MS) and have had it for ten years and counting. MS drugs suck, plain and simple (almost all of them must be taken via injection or I.V.). Let me back up and say that having MS is no picnic either, but when I was diagnosed at 15 the good news was that MS is not terminal (just in-case either of my readers didn't know that). MS drugs are much like street drugs: the REALLY good ones could kill you, but the so-so ones are like thinking about Bruce Valance during sex - they're only delaying the inevitable (if at all).

The real purpose for this post is that I had an MRI recently and it turns out that I have two new lesions and one of my old ones has grown (yay for progression!), so my neurologist(s) think it's time to look at switching to one of the newer, more promising drugs out (I will not be naming them - for fear of legal action). The first one that was suggested to me (call it A), has shown amazing results in very serious cases. You may be saying to yourself "Well Cole, what are you bitching about? That sounds like a great option!" WRONG! This drug, while restoring cognitive function and/or strengthening gait, also has a wee problem - that problem going by the name PML. Which - for those of you that are too lazy to read that Wiki page - is a rare and usually fatal disease that likes to feast on the white matter of the host's brain. About 1 in 1000 people who take A develop a mild case of death, so for me that is right out!

The second drug (I will refer to it as My-Crushed-Hopes) is the very first pill for MS!!!! And after having to endure injecting 20mg of my current med into my fat and then the 20-30 minutes of ignoring the evolution of burning to itching at the shot site afterwards (plus that one time I stopped breathing after a dose), a pill was a godsend. This drug is called an immuno-suppressant, which you should be able to gather from the name means that it suppresses the immune system. As a result of this type of drug, common side effects are increased susceptibility to infections - so much so that during trials two people died of neuro-herpes. As well as a curious occurrence of basal-cell carcinoma, which A also has.

So these were the two drugs that my doctor and his staff suggest I take a serious look at, to which I said: "What happened to MS NOT being terminal"... I got no answer to that question. So clearly, that happy caveat of this disease not going to kill me any faster than my cell phone was more of an optimistic estimation... well played, God. But this story doesn't have a bitter and slightly blasphemous ending; apparently, there is a NEW drug on the market that is also a pill, but doesn't have any of those nasty side-effects. So instead of thinking of good ol'Bruce I may just being able to enjoy the ride. To be continued....