My Covid Jap Update - An Overdue Post!

 I actually recorded this ages ago but forgot to post it. Hey ho! had both jabs some time back for Covid - Astra Zeneca - but had quite an adverse reaction overnight to the second jab. Didn't last much beyond lunchtime, but worth reporting.

1.5-Year Update!

 Here, finally, is a one-and-a-half-year update after having had HSCT. Check it out!

Willing to Help and Advise, and "Coming back in a Wooden Box"...

I hope they don't mind me saying, but I was contacted recently by someone through Facebook Messenger out of the blue. Her brother-in-law had recently been diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis and appeared to be in a bit of a spiral downwards in terms of not quite knowing what to do with the oftentimes damning diagnosis. There is no doubt that a diagnosis of PPMS can leave one feeling a little helpless and hopeless. The treatment options really are few and far between…

This brother-in-law was in his 50s, and on the EDSS scale a few points above me. He and his wife were keen to meet me, especially as they lived locally and had read some of my blogs and seen some of my videos, to talk about the option of going to Russia for HSCT.

6-Month MRI Results from Russia!

I have finally been back to Moscow to get my follow-up MRI done and to get the results. I will talk about the results in more detail in a future post. Here is the GoFundMe page update that I gave:

As you all know, I have PPMS (Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis), had stem cell treatment (HSCT) six months ago in Russia (Moscow), and have returned for my follow-up MRI scan. Which I had today, and met with the doctor on the same day to discuss the results.

Oat Milk from the Local Shop

For those of you, like me, who have gone vegan, in an attempt to tackle their MS, you might want to know that the local shop to the clinic sells a couple of boat milks. Given the massive range of cartons of milk that they have on sale there, and given the language difficulties, trying to work out which one is non-this dairy can be quite a challenge!

Getting My MRI in Moscow

I am presently in Moscow, where I have just had my MRI to check whether the HSCT treatment has worked or not. Of course, I could have got to my MRI done in the UK. But, as some readers might recall, there was quite a significant difference between the MRI scanner in Winchester, back in the UK, and the one that they used prior to my treatment in Moscow. When I had my last MRI done in the UK, I think sometime in February, it registered three lesions on my brain and spinal cord. However, when I had my MRI scan prior to my treatment in March, in Moscow, they found eleven lesions. This seems to be because the machine in Moscow is a 3 Tesla machine whilst the one back at home was a 1.5T machine. Being twice the resolution in Moscow, the machine found more lesions on my brain and spinal cord. As a result, it would be rather silly of me not to get a like-for-like comparison by using the same machine to compare my before and after results.

MS Research - Getting in the News - I'll Give It a Try

Multiple sclerosis recently got on the national news – the BBC's 6 o'clock News. Caroline Wyatt, who has long suffered from multiple sclerosis, has been a BBC correspondent for some time. She contracted multiple sclerosis and struggled to be able to fulfil her job requirements. Recently, she undertook HSCT in Mexico. However, she had had multiple sclerosis since 1992. Whether it be as a result of suffering from the condition for so long, or some other variable, and although the treatment initially worked, she eventually returned to her previous state. That said, her brain fog is still much better than it was previously. Ostensibly, though, Wyatt has been a failed responder.