Third Blood Test Results - Week 5-6

Here are the results to my third blood test. These are a little bit late as I had the test done at the beginning of last week. They came in at about the 5 1/2 to 6 week mark. Broadly speaking, I was happy with the results, although also I felt I could have made a little more progress perhaps. My platelets seem to have gone into abnormal again. All my liver and kidney functions appear to be on point and the only abnormal stats were in my full blood count.

Here is the video that details the results. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Interview about HSCT on Naked Diner Podcast

Here is an interview I gave the other week for the Naked Diner podcast. It is the third time I have been on, and each time has been great - massive thanks to them.

Excuse the opening expletives - I didn't realise I was on air at that time! And the false finish at the end! Here it is:

White Hair

It's white! White, I  tell you! It's odd and it's probably quite normal - I need to look into it. My hair is slowly growing back, but I think it is doing so in places I didn't properly lose it. My theory is that I lost hair in patches on my face and quite consistently across my head, but I didn't fully lose much of it. Where I shaved my face and had my head shaved, and where I didn't lose the hair, it just stopped growing. Where I lost it, I think it is still absent in the follicles.

One Month+ Update

It's just over a month since I came back from my HSCT treatment for my primary progressive multiple sclerosis, in Moscow. As many of you will know, my treatment went absolutely fantastically, and my recovery has continued that trajectory. I feel really good about everything and I feel really good in and of myself. This, of course, can lead to complacency and can be dangerous giving that my body and immune system may not be ready for normality. 

But I feel normal. 

A Book for You...

This is a nudge to you guys for birthday presents for any kids up to, say, 14/15 for you. You know you want to...

A book that I have written with one of my ex-colleagues called The Curse of the Maya: A Truth-Seekers' Story is now published and available to buy. It was something that I finished, as a project, when I was receiving my treatment in Moscow. It gave me time to finalize some of the details and editing before getting it out.

Details from the Loom site are:

Johnny Pearce and Andy Loneragan are embarking on a project for 9-year-olds through to 13-year-olds or so. In UK terms, this is Year 5 through to Year 7 and beyond. Heck, even adults should enjoy this one. The book fits in within the loose remit of Loom in being fiction from a skeptical or philosophical perspective.

Let’s set the scene of the book.

Finally! NICE Accepts Drug for PPMS

It has long been the case that people with primary progressive multiple sclerosis are the Forgotten relatives of people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. In the UK, on the NHS, we have no drugs available to sufferers of PPMS governing body (called NICE) last year refused to pay for the drug, ocrelizumab. After negotiations between NHS England and Roche, which manufactures it under the name Ocrevus, the NHS finally bartered the price down to an acceptable level and have just accepted it for PPMS sufferers.

100% Correlation of Glandular Fever/Kissing Disease to MS

It has long been known that glandular fever or the kissing disease, more medically known as Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), has something very important to do with the development of multiple sclerosis. My MS nurse was recently telling me that an awful lot of effort and money has been put into researching this link. It seems that 100% of people who have had glandular fever (EBV) have developed multiple sclerosis. Obviously, this is only a tiny proportion of people who have contracted glandular fever, but the finding is exceptionally important. What this essentially means is that if we can develop a vaccine for glandular fever, then we can effectively wipe out multiple sclerosis. This is great news! Here is a video that lays out some details:

I'm not sure what the study is referred to here, or who the research it is being interviewed, but I have found a very recent (2019) piece of research that shows that 100% of Cypriot MS sufferers investigated had had EBV: