I went to a seminar last night at the MCM Elegante regarding MS treatment options featuring Dr. Annette Okai from the Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Center of Dallas, a Baylor Health Texas Affiliate. My dear friend Robyn went with me, which I owe her big time for because I didn't want to go by myself, and I actually had a good time. Dinner was provided and it was a Mexican buffet (with good food and salsa I might add). I kept telling Robyn she could leave or just duck out of the room, claim she had to go to the bathroom and not return, but she said she wanted to stay and that she was enjoying herself. Crazy woman!! We got tickled at a local neurologist who kept going back to the buffet and sighed quite loudly when the food was taken away. The seminar was presented by the company who makes one of the big MS drugs.
After going over what MS was and available treatments, the doctor and drug rep. took questions from the people attending, which was very interesting. I learned so much tonight from Dr. Okai and am looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Stephenson on February 2nd! After the seminar, I spoke to the Dr., on a hypothetical basis, regarding my MRI lab report...which I just happened to have with me. She said that hypothetically speaking and without knowing any of my history or looking at the MRI slides, I have a high probability of having Multiple Sclerosis. (Dr. Stephenson's nurse keeps making me question what the doctor actually told me in my last doctor's appointment because of little comments she continually makes. When I question her comments, she talks to Dr. Stephenson and then relays exactly what the doctor already said. I need to stop talking to this nurse, but she's just so darn likable!!!)
During the question and answer time, I asked about the MS and mono connection and Dr. Okai said that mono has been implicated to cause MS, it's not proven. Chicken pox and other various viruses and/or illnesses were also questioned by other people. When asked about a special diet, Dr. Okai said that she tells people to follow the diet that your mother wanted you to eat when you were younger (she doesn't know my mother) and she encourages her patients to just eat a balanced diet. She isn't a fan of cutting out carbs, fat, lipids, etc. Dr. Okai said she personally avoids preservatives and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that she also avoids artificial sweeteners because I saw her using sugar packets in her tea. Dr. Okai said that MS is a young person disease and it occurs during the "productive years". Most people are diagnosed between the age of 20 and 50, however some are diagnosed much younger and older. Dr. Okai said all of her patients are Vitamin D deficient and that after testing new patient blood levels, she gives them a a high dosage prescription for 6 months. After that, she maintains patients on 2,000 units daily. Dr. Okai said that Vitamin D is proven to reduce relapses and that it contains anti-inflammatory properties. She went on to say that lesions are smaller with higher Vitamin D levels. We also talked about CCSVI, which has been a hot topic in the MS world for several years thanks to Professor Samboni of France. Without going into detail, Dr. Okai said that CCSVI can not cure MS and only helps symptoms and further said that increased blood flow to any tissue is going to cause good health. She also said that Professor Samboni has changed his tune admitting it could help MS symptoms instead of curing MS as he previously claimed. I guess the last really big thing was about medications. The main goal of doctors in prescribing medication is to reduce frequency of attacks, reduce damage to the brain, and reduce progression to disability. She used the analogy of teaching old dogs new tricks when she was discussing medicating even when a patient doesn't have symptoms. MS can still be doing things in your body even though you don't realize it and you need to "train" it for when the episodes or relapses occur. I asked Dr. Okai if a person could kind of have MS or have MS slightly or was that like saying a person is kind of pregnant when either they are or they aren't pregnant. After some laughter, she said you either have it or you don't. (Dr. Stephenson's nurse again planting things in my head!)
After sitting through all of this, I think that I probably have Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) because it is the most common form of MS affecting 85% of all newly diagnosed people and because relapses are usually followed by partial or complete recovery. She did say that symptoms can remain inactive for long periods of time.
After going over what MS was and available treatments, the doctor and drug rep. took questions from the people attending, which was very interesting. I learned so much tonight from Dr. Okai and am looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Stephenson on February 2nd! After the seminar, I spoke to the Dr., on a hypothetical basis, regarding my MRI lab report...which I just happened to have with me. She said that hypothetically speaking and without knowing any of my history or looking at the MRI slides, I have a high probability of having Multiple Sclerosis. (Dr. Stephenson's nurse keeps making me question what the doctor actually told me in my last doctor's appointment because of little comments she continually makes. When I question her comments, she talks to Dr. Stephenson and then relays exactly what the doctor already said. I need to stop talking to this nurse, but she's just so darn likable!!!)
During the question and answer time, I asked about the MS and mono connection and Dr. Okai said that mono has been implicated to cause MS, it's not proven. Chicken pox and other various viruses and/or illnesses were also questioned by other people. When asked about a special diet, Dr. Okai said that she tells people to follow the diet that your mother wanted you to eat when you were younger (she doesn't know my mother) and she encourages her patients to just eat a balanced diet. She isn't a fan of cutting out carbs, fat, lipids, etc. Dr. Okai said she personally avoids preservatives and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that she also avoids artificial sweeteners because I saw her using sugar packets in her tea. Dr. Okai said that MS is a young person disease and it occurs during the "productive years". Most people are diagnosed between the age of 20 and 50, however some are diagnosed much younger and older. Dr. Okai said all of her patients are Vitamin D deficient and that after testing new patient blood levels, she gives them a a high dosage prescription for 6 months. After that, she maintains patients on 2,000 units daily. Dr. Okai said that Vitamin D is proven to reduce relapses and that it contains anti-inflammatory properties. She went on to say that lesions are smaller with higher Vitamin D levels. We also talked about CCSVI, which has been a hot topic in the MS world for several years thanks to Professor Samboni of France. Without going into detail, Dr. Okai said that CCSVI can not cure MS and only helps symptoms and further said that increased blood flow to any tissue is going to cause good health. She also said that Professor Samboni has changed his tune admitting it could help MS symptoms instead of curing MS as he previously claimed. I guess the last really big thing was about medications. The main goal of doctors in prescribing medication is to reduce frequency of attacks, reduce damage to the brain, and reduce progression to disability. She used the analogy of teaching old dogs new tricks when she was discussing medicating even when a patient doesn't have symptoms. MS can still be doing things in your body even though you don't realize it and you need to "train" it for when the episodes or relapses occur. I asked Dr. Okai if a person could kind of have MS or have MS slightly or was that like saying a person is kind of pregnant when either they are or they aren't pregnant. After some laughter, she said you either have it or you don't. (Dr. Stephenson's nurse again planting things in my head!)
After sitting through all of this, I think that I probably have Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) because it is the most common form of MS affecting 85% of all newly diagnosed people and because relapses are usually followed by partial or complete recovery. She did say that symptoms can remain inactive for long periods of time.
All in all, it was a very good seminar and I definitely have some answers to the questions on my list!
Robyn - if you happen to read this some day... thank you for being so great about sitting through this with me!!!!
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