Back to life

So, on Wednesday I was randomized into the control arm of the study. Guess my gut feeling was right again.

This is a copy of the email I sent out, I don't feel like typing it all over again.

Well, today was the "big day". It started out a little rough. One of my blood tests came back weird, so they originally thought I may not be able to be in the study anymore. It was all cleared up though, and off my number went to the statistician. I'm unfortunately in the control arm of the study.

I'm pretty disappointed, except for the fact that I get to go home tomorrow and see Mason. I really wanted into the treatment arm, but not seeing him for 2 more weeks would have been really hard!

Once I get home, I have an appt with my local neurologist and will switch from Copaxone to Tysabri. I'm nervous about being on Tysabri, but I understand why it's necessary for the study that the control arm patients be on what is currently considered to be the best treatment out there. It is the best, but it comes at a pretty high risk.

I'll be back to Chicago at 6 months, 12 months and every year for 5 years for follow ups. If I continue to get worse, there is always an option to cross over into the treatment arm, so this isn't the end of the road as far as the stem cell transplant goes. Of course, I don't want to get worse either, but that is the nature of MS.

So tonight Todd and I are heading out to watch game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals, and then tomorrow we'll pack and head home. I am looking forward to having straight hair again, this humidity is too much to fight with on a daily basis so my hair has been curly almost this entire time :)

We are now back at home. We still haven't seen Mason because he's at "school" today, but I have a feeling he will be picked up early today by both of us. Until then, it's just the usual stuff around the house and getting back to our normal life.