Long time no post

Long gaps between posts are a good thing. Lately I've been reading the book, "Curing MS" by Dr. Weiner. It's hard to read sometimes as the discussions are frank and the history of treatments for MS was essentially non-existant until the last 15 years.

Even now there is a lot we don't know about how the treatments work. The drug that I'm on is an Interferon and they are used for treating viruses -- based on the hypothesis that MS was caused by a virus. I think it's clear now that it isn't, but the drugs are clinically proven to help. It looks like what happens is that it modifies the immune system, lowering production of bad T cells and increasing production of good T cells.

For my own bookkeeping I'll discuss each symptom and how it has been behaving lately:

• Parasthesia -- seems to be creeping up slowly, similar to last year when it started in Jan. and progressed until my diagnosis and steroid treatment in Aug. Feet still hurt with the burning sensation and parasthesia is mainly on my back and slightly returned to legs. Last week out of the blue my hands got a tingly feeling, like the feeling just before the funny bone feeling goes away... it is still there.
• Spasticity -- seems to be under control with stretching and baclofen.
• Fatigue -- not hitting me at the moment.
• Balance -- still seems to be normal, had another fairly decent soccer game tonite and haven't noticed any degradation in my play.
• Coordination -- seems normal
• Bladder -- same problems, I'm nervous to go back the the urologist.

Overall, I still feel decent, but I'm worried about parasthesia and that it is creeping back in like during my first clinical relapse.

I'm motivated about learning the history of MS based on reading this book. I'm a little nervous about how my symptoms began, in so many cases the first MS relapse comes on all of a suddent, and dramatically. Loss of vision, numbness all over. I've seen some indication in the book that it's not a good thing to have the steady progression that I feel. But, I'm hypersensitive about the parasthesia, and it always flares up after a game. So, no use worrying about my prognosis.