Help Irene cure her MS

Follow my journey

Blog "“ http://ireneelliott.wordpress.com/
Facebook "“ Irene Elliott's big fat Greek fundraiser

Background

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2002 aged 24. My initial symptoms included paralyses and loss of function on left side of the body.

My Journey
I recovered 85% from that from that first attack and remained on an irregular downward course over the in the past 10 years. Unfortunately the progression included heaps of multiple MS attacks and as a result, my condition quickly deteriorated.
Present
I am so determine to never surrender to the disease, even when my mobility was impaired to the point of relying on a wheelchair, or other walking aid's, losing my eyesight and even after my Doctors gave up, pretty much writing me off - I preferred to not lose hope and try instead to maintain a positive.
It helps to have a partner who didn't give up on me.
I exhausted all available clinical treatment options and consequently I decided to seek other overseas treatments.

The Future
My goal is to stop the progression of the disease and reverse a measurable amount of symptoms with Stem cell treatment
The decision I had to make was:

A) Continue with current treatment TYSABRI;
"“ MS will continue to progress, and
- Risk progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) simply put, PML is a serious infection of the brain's white matter that usually causes death or severe disability.

B) The stem cell option
- Autologous HSCT (Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation) treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. That has have been shown to "reduce or eliminate ongoing clinical relapses, halt further progression, and reduce the burden of disability in some patients" that have aggressive highly active multiple sclerosis, "in the absence of chronic treatment with disease-modifying agents".

Conclusion
I had thought about the options over the past three years. I consulted with my husband & family, comprehensively researched the options, and studied medical research papers and sight advice from leading international experts.
In the end it was an obvious decision "“ B) The stem cell option