Okay, so it was Kauai that I was vacationing in :) It was lovely, relaxing, and so nice and slow paced. Loved bobbing around in the ocean and really not doing much of anything. I even have a bit of a tan! I guess I got my dose of Vitamin D. I overheated once while hiking up from a beach. It made my legs so numb and my eye sight so wonky I had to just sit in the car and let the AC cool me down. Blech. Other than that, I didn't really feel too many MS symptoms although my legs seems to be pretty fuzzy these last couple of days being home. I wonder now if I was feeling that sensation less in the heat and now coming home to the cold I'm feeling it again? Who knows! My back didn't fair that great on the poor quality bed or the long, long plane ride home. I can't wait to see my massage therapist. A new love I discovered while there is a Tangelo. YUM. I have never sat on a beach and enjoyed a piece of fruit more than that juicy, delicious tangelo! I wish i could buy them here locally. The other new love is Kona coffee, chocolate macadamia nut flavour. Mmmm.

MRI May Predict Multiple Sclerosis' Effect on Brain
2007-02-14 15:09:14

I guess this news shouldn't be all that surprising, but MRI changes can predict future course of disabilty in early years of diagnosis. "Changes in brain volume over the two years were calculated, and the study volunteers also underwent assessment for changes in neurologic disability. "The mean (average) annualized rate of cerebral atrophy was - 0.9 percentage of brain volume changed per year," the researchers wrote. Two factors -- brain volume at baseline and the brain's "T2 lesion load" -- explained 31.2 percent of the variance in percentage of brain volume change per year, the researchers concluded. This means that "patients who have acquired more brain tissue loss and more T2 lesions are prone to have a higher rate of subsequent brain atrophy," the study authors concluded. "In this relationship, the extent of brain tissue loss seemed more important than lesional activity. Because a higher rate of cerebral atrophy is predictive of worse clinical functioning at a later stage in the MS disease course, our findings suggest that these two baseline variables could have prognostic value for clinical functioning in early MS," the team said."

Benign MS often not so benign
2007-02-14 15:28:07

Well, well, well... so the disease can be "MS lite" in the first few years but ends up just the same as any other RRMS'er. Good to know. And look! Thats my Neurolgist who co-author'ed this report! I'll have to ask her about it when i see her next year. "Patients who are told they have benign MS should be regularly assessed to see whether subtle neurological changes that might herald later progression of the disease could be picked up early, the researchers with the University of British Columbia Hospital MS Clinic recommend. Those who experience few symptoms for the first 10 years are often told they have a mild form of the illness and will never suffer severe problems. But the researchers found that after 20 years the disease had progressed in nearly half of those diagnosed with benign MS, including 20 per cent who needed a cane to walk. "We hoped to identify risk factors that make people more likely to progress in the disease after 10 years of a benign course, but we did not find that gender, the symptoms when the disease began or age when the disease began were associated with either disease progression or remaining benign," said study co-author Dr. Virginia Devonshire. "More research needs to be done to identify criteria to determine which people will remain with mild disability over the long term."