When Life Gets in the Way – a patient’s story - Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Information, and resources

When Life Gets in the Way

By Cherie C. Binns RN BS MSCN

I have not written much here in the past few months because life has gotten in the way of some of the creativity that has led to this series of articles. By saying that, I am also saying that Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has been behaving for some time now freeing me to live life more on my terms and with a broader spectrum than in previous months and years.

If you have been following my writings posted on www.msviewsandnews.org under the “Ask the MS Nurse” link, you know that 2008 was a year that saw me in what looked to be more than a year long slide into progression of disability. This, it turned out, was a result of a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) that was not responding to traditional treatment. Why? Well…it was discovered that my DMT (Disease Modifying Therapy) was doing such a good job of modifying my immune system so that I could survive an MS relapse, that I did not have the antibodies to fight a real infection elsewhere in my body.

Once the Immunologist had determined this to be the cause of my not being able to fight a simple infection, I was taken off my DMT and placed on a daily dose of IVIg (an intravenous infusion of antibodies from multiple blood donors) for a week. That enabled me to fight the infection and a week later, for the first time in 16 months; I had a clean urine culture. Back on my DMT, I developed another UTI within two weeks so had to come off my traditional therapy and look for another alternative to get and keep me well.

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