End of the Year

I haven't written in awhile, been kind of busy with work and the holiday season. The doctors finally figured out what the cause of my side pain was. After I had every GI test known to man and they all came up negative, I spoke with my neurologist and he decided I should have a thoracic spine MRI. The results to that were not good. I have 2 lesions directly opposite of my belly button. My neurologist finally came to the conclusion the side pain is from those lesions. The pain hasn't gotten any better. It has actually gotten worse both of my sides hurt and I am in pain 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I pretty much block it out as much as I can. If I am busy at work or doing something fun this is the easiest times to ignore it. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that there is nothing I can do about it and this is what I have to live with.

I had my 7th Tysabri infusion 2 weeks ago, everything is going OK with it except every time I read the news there is another case of PML popping up. This does not make me feel any better about taking this drug. Overall it is working pretty well, I am less tired on the drug and the short term side effects of the drug are much better than Avonex. I have no desire to go back to Avonex. I have definitely had some setbacks though. Right now part of my right foot is numb and has been this way since right after my 6th Tysabri infusion. About 3 weeks ago the skin on my chest went numb. Luckily that only lasted a week. The doctors keep saying that now I am in the stage of the medicine that I should start seeing real results. I am trying to be optimistic but I am also a realist and I am not going to get my hopes up. I made an appointment with my neurologist at the end of January so we can discuss the fact that more PML cases keep showing up. I really don't plan on him saying anything different than last time but I figure if I make it known this is a bigger concern that maybe I will get better answers.

Christmas is just around the corner and I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully the year 2009 will bring some good news with the state of my MS. I am trying to stay optimistic.