This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Dear friends: I got the call and set up the blood test for Wednesday morning. I have to call them when I get a package in the mail, because that has to be here before they can do anything, but I am certain it will be here by then. When all the dust has settled, and when everybody knows what is happe...

Dear folks: My doctor decided to get me a blood test to see if I have developed antibodies to Tysabri. I am waiting for the call from a lab, which will set up a home visit for a blood draw, and then it will take about four to six weeks for results. The information which the nurse gave me about this ...

Dear Amelia and Gary: The FDA does have a knack for screwing things up. As does Medicare. I am not sure what will happen now, and I feel very empty. I am not angry, but I am also not optimistic. Tysabri seems to have become ineffective for a minority of patients, and I seem to be one of them. But, w...

Dear Amelia: I am sorry to hear that Gary was misdiagnosed, but I am glad to hear that they have found the true diagnosis! Yes, wasted time in one sense, but at least you tried every avenue which was possible at the time. Diagnosis is such a murky business. Speaking of which, evidently there was ANO...

Dear Amelia, Lee, Harry, etc: Now I can read more carefully, and was redirected to this topic, and I FOUND IT! Amazing. This is where I need to be. Yes, my reaction started within just minutes of starting the infusion. It was the fourth infusion, the second after Tysabri was reintroduced. I guess I ...

Dear folks: I disappeared for a while, I know. The classes at San Antonio College started up, and I was waiting on my HMO to approve me, so I decided I needed to chill for a while. Then, TA DA! I was approved, enrolled, and scheduled! Had my first infusion October 16th, and my second infusion Novemb...

Dear folks: C'est moi. I am still waiting for the HMO/neurologist's office/TOUCH program to get me an infusion! Last week, on Weds pm, after my doctor's office had closed for the day, a nurse from the HMO called and told me to ask the people in the Neuro's office to fax them documents proving that w...

Dear Lauren, and everyone else: OK, I got a promise from someone at the HMO yesterday morning that the approval for an authorization for in-office infusion of Tysabri would be possible by that afternoon or today, once the Medical Director had reviewed the files. Then, yesterday at 4:40 pm, I got a c...

Dear Harry and Lauren: I am still waiting on my HMO. This morning, I tried calling a number which was sent to me in January, to speak with my "Case Manager", a nurse who sent me a letter in January and told me to contact her with any questions about my "health plan's covered services ...

Dear Amelia: This is my opinion, mind you, but I think there must be a course of study in Stalling the Patient, which is required in some curriculae (like when I studied at University of Illinois, you were required to take a course which was an overview of all of the majors in the Arts if you were a...

Dear Amelia: This is my opinion, mind you, but I think there must be a course of study in Stalling the Patient, which is required in some curriculae (like when I studied at University of Illinois, you were required to take a course which was an overview of all of the majors in the Arts if you were a...

Dear Lauren: I think you might be challenged in a Scrabble tournament for that one. My grandmother used to say, "Oh, for the goodness sake!" She was a very mild, but formidable person (she lost her right hand in a laundry mangle when she was in eighth grade, but managed to become a stenogr...

Dear Lauren: Yay! It sounds like you are making progress! I am not being sarcastic, because it sounds like you are overcoming roadblocks and hurdles galore! This is indeed taking longer than we expectied! Yesterday I called Don, the infusion nurse from my neurologist's office, to see if he had heard...

Ian: Ok, I kinda scrolled through it for a while. I must tell you, my dad was kinda nutty when I was a kid and made us take a slew of vitamins and weird healthfood stuff at breakfast, and I also still got MS. So there ya go. He made us sprinkle lecithin powder on our cereal, and when we had a cold, ...

Dear Amelia and Ian, and all the others: Yeah, even in the NMSS publications when you turn the cover to the first page, there is someone hiking or riding a bike or competing in marathons or some such thing, and they always have some cheery slogan about one of the CRABs; which makes me feel like I mu...