1995-2010: Over 15 years of MS, I’ve accumulated 50 “silent” lesions: ones that didn’t result in a flare-up. That’s 3.33 lesions a year. Only two of the 50 were noisy enough to break though my oblivion, so I’ve only been in the hospital twice. That’s one active lesion every 7.5 years. That is well over the average of one every three years.
(I sound smug, don’t I? Hush. You’d be pleased with yourself too. It’s a stupid brain, but at least it’s discreet. Evidently that’s where all my discretion is hiding.)
2011-2013: So, I started 2010 with my fifty vewy-vewy-qwiet lesions. How many do I have now?: Fifty! No new lesions in 2011 or 2012.
The neurologist let me know. We did the seated happy dance together. “The drugs work!”
So, holding pat at fifty.
Then again, it is possible that lesions level out when your estrogen dries up, given that they surmise hormones and MS might be linked. Or, maybe lesions top out at fifty. Maybe they stop counting at fifty. Or maybe it’s like the rings on a tree: you earn one for every year you’ve been alive. No, then that means I’d have been dead the last two years because NO NEW LESIONS.
9 responses to “Fifty at Fifty”
Yay! Well done. Very pleased to hear that.
This is several kinds of good!
Are you tempted to eat, drink, exercise, think, travel exactly the same as the past two years? I would be.
Congratulations! Which meds do you use, if you don’t mind my asking? A friend of mine is dealing with MS, also.
Big Dot – I thank you. I found out something interesting, the typical silent /noisy lesion ratio for everyone is 25 to 1. So I am on track for that. Still, no new lesions.
~~Silk – I got the exercise lecture, so the doctor did not say “keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
Suburban correspondent – Gilenya. It’s a pill. Tell your friend not to be thrown off by the $4K a month price tag. Evdently everyone negotiates a better price.
Weight training. It’s my favorite exercise because it makes you stronger. Also, it’s excellent for the bones of women of a certain age.
OK, I don’t have a favorite exercise. I hate exercising.
Excellent!
Nothing else to add except! Excellent!
Tami – but your twitter feed always says you’are at Optimum Health and Fitness.
Murphy Jacobs – EE! I know!
Crap, I forgot to check in at the gym on Wednesday, didn’t I. I *am* at Optimum Health and Fitness, pretty much 3 times a week, always doing speed circuit weight training with a personal trainer. He has monthly rates, I’m not spending $300 a week on this, or anything.
Anyway, I do it. You’ve seen me, I’m weighed down with 100 pounds of lymph fluid and half-crippled by osteoarthritis. if I didn’t do it, I’d lose my ability to walk altogether, and then I’d die.
I might hate exercise, and I might be crazy, but I am really, really not stupid.
Tami – You are a better woman than I. I cleaned out my basement, though. That was exercise.