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A diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis can be difficult to hear.  See how people are learning to live wel

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It hits in the prime of your life. I couldn't stand; I was completely out of it. Targeting healthy women and men. I woke up one morning and my whole left side of the body was numb. Slowly robbing them of their ability to walk, see and even think clearly. Multiple Sclerosis, there is no known cause, there is no known cure. A fact, 20 year old Jay Constrastano found out just a year ago. I finally went to the ER, they did a cat scan, and they found numerous lesions in my brain. The next day did an MRI, they found more lesions in my back and then they did the spinal tap. All the tests lead to a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. I never knew about it, I never knew that this was something that could affect me. I've never heard about it up until the diagnosis. But MS would change his life, stopping this athletic, active man in his tracks. I'm not going to go out there and shoot a jump shot or slam dunk a basketball. I'm not going to go out and hit homes runs or stuff. Jay was experiencing what most MS patient's experience. The main symptoms of MS are almost anything. It can be anywhere in your nervous system where the mile and the wiring in the brain or spinal cord is attacked by the immune system. You create a short circuit and that causes a symptom, an attack, an exacerbation. One of my patients calls it exasperation. Jay's neurologist, Peter Wade, works with MS patients every day. Patients live every single day in fear of not getting better. If you woke up in the morning and your arm was numb, you'd say Oh, I slept on my arm funny. An MS patient says "oh, my God another MS attack". Each attack leads to more disability; there is no reversing the damage. The sooner patients start treatment, the less likely they'll experience another attack. The approach we want to take is to try to decrease the frequency of their attacks and by doing so delay disability. There are five primary disease modifying therapies. Dr. Wade: There's interferon's like Avonex, Betaceron or Rebif and there's Copaxon. Doctor Wade says they've all been shown to decrease the risk of having another attack by 30 to 35 percent. Those are the white spots or lesions. Jay immediately started taking injections three times a week, but then another attack. His MRI scan showed lots of lesions and so what we decided to do was use more aggressive therapy. The attack affected Jay's sight and left his legs so weak he needed a wheelchair. That's when Jay and his doctor decided on a monthly infusion Tysabri. The newer medications, Tysabri, one of the newer more effective medications, has a risk of a brain infection called PML. It's a rare infection so we monitor people very closely for that. Some of the other newer medicines can affect your heart rate, can affect your vision, can affect your breathing. PML is the same infection seen in HIV patients due to their compromised immune system. For MS patients, only one in a thousand people are at risk for the infection. Patients want effective therapy. They're willing to take some risks because they know what the disease can happen. New oral medications just approved by the FDA give MS patients another option. We're using stronger medicines, almost medicines like chemotherapy to suppress the immune system so it won't attack the central nervous system, but there's riskier medicines your get more benefit but there's more risk. Lizette Garcia spent the last ten years taking injections to treat her MS. Over the years, they did not get worse but they did not get better. I still have a slow drag with my left, the coordination is bad in my left hand, and I'm left handed. It affected her at home and at work. I love to garden, that's my hobby, and that's something I can't do anymore, stay outside for long periods of time. I have to concentrate when I'm walking, talking, writing. For ten years Lizette lived with the side effects from the injections. Chills, fever, body aches and weakness. The purpose of the medication is to slow the progression. If you want to slow the progression you have no choice, you have to take a medication. This year Lizette talked to her doctor about trying another newly approved medication. The switch worked well for her. I've had no side effects, I have more energy, I feel so good and I'm happy about that. Melissa Ortega has been working with Lizette to find the best medication for her. She says patients should stay with medications that are working, but if not, they should explore options with their doctor. The more medications and drugs that we have available the better. The more options patients may have and they may respond to another one. The medicines do very good at stopping the new lesions on MRI scans, so if we see new lesions, that's probably the time to at least sit back and take a look at what's going on. One of the biggest problems doctors face with their patients. They stick their head deeper in the sand and ignore it. Sometimes you don't want to admit that you'r

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