If you ask how Tysabri is helping me now, I am severely disabled now since I had a severe relapse in June 2005 which left me wheelchair-bound and the damage might be permanent, but Tysabri has now kept my MS stable since I restarted my infusions in October '06...and I only had one minor relapse in May '07 from which I have now recovered completely (which is a first for me!). Prior to restarting Tysabri in October '06, I was having a relapse approximately once a month as of June '05. So it is doing what it's supposed to which is effectively reduce relapses and slow the disease process down. I now have hope once again
If you ask me how Tysabri worked for me in early '05 when I had my very first dose, and I was not so disabled, Tysabri was a miracle drug for me in that just two weeks after my first infusion, I put my walker away, my right drop was gone, my limp was gone, my slurred speech was gone, my optic neuritis was pretty much gone, my balance was improving, and I was only walking with a cane...but when Tysabri was temporarily removed from the market on March 1, 2005 - I no longer had Tysabri's protection-and in June '05 is when I suffered my severe relapse which hit me completely out of the blue.
My point is that now I am protected with Tysabri's superior efficacy of 67% by reducing my risk from further (severe) relapses, my disease progression has stopped/slowed down considerably, and my Quality of Life has greatly improved since October '06, so I'm happy about
that...wooohooo!
The ABCR meds no longer helped me, so I wasn't on any of them, and therefore, I did not need to have the washout period prior to starting Tysabri. However the FDA has recommended a two-week washout for the ABCRs, and a three to six month washout for Novantrone, CellCept, Imuran, etc. You can read about
the washout times on the NMSS site:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=HOM_RES_tysabri_qanda
As to LDN, while it is true that it's not that expensive, you can only get LDN from a compound pharmacy and it doesn't work for everyone. Furthermore, it is not an FDA approved drug for MS.
Tysabri's superior efficacy of 67% is becoming well-known in the MS population...as a matter of fact, to date, there have been about
40,000 infusions in approximately 12,500 MS patients currently on Tysabri, and there has not been a single case of PML from Tysabri monotherapy since the three combination drug trial cases were discovered over two years ago, despite an intensive independent safety review and very rigorous screening and monitoring under the TOUCH program.
In fact, there has never been a case of PML from the use of Tysabri as a monotherapy in a typical immuno-competent MS patient. about
300 patients are starting Tysabri every week, 75% of whom are switching from these "first-level" drugs (i.e., the ABCRs) to get twice as much efficacy from the first new disease modifying drug of it's kind for MS, that being Tysabri.
By the way, I have had ZERO side effects from Tysabri!
I hope I have answered some of your questions Zoe, have a great day and God bless...,