Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

So, a few months back I came across the news report on HiCy and the woman who had gone through the treatment. She spoke of her rapid MS progression and how disabling it had become. The report showed her confined to a wheel chair- and then a live video of her running in the back yard. That was enough for me.

The only guarantee with MS is that it will get worse. That more disabililty is lurking around the corner. The drugs that are available only boast to cut back on relapse rates. The ultimate goal is to stop the progression, and to reverse any disability that has accrued. HiCy has been shown to do both of those. That, to me, outweighs all the side effects and risks of the treatment.

It's so easy to get lost in this disease. To live day to day coping and finding new ways to get things accomplished. It's not until you stop and take a look at what you can no longer do, or how much harder it is to get certain things done, that you realize what the disease has taken from you. I almost feel like I don't deserve to have HiCy. Or that I shouldn't have pushed so hard to get approval. I know how much worse off I could be, but I would be a fool to wait until I got to that point to persue this treatment. I want to be as aggressive with this disease as it has been with me. Fight fire with fire. So here I am.

I don't have a scheduled date to start the treatment, but I am going to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago on October 16th and 17th to meet with Dr. Balabanov (MS doctor) and the Oncologist. I am hoping to get started the beginning of November.