new to list - ?'s about avonex

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

I have a close friend who has been diagnosed with MS this past year. He is 25

and recently married. He is scheduled to start the drug therapy Avonex. Has

anybody on this list taken this drug? Do any of you have any opinions about

this med - good or bad? Please feel free to email me privately I am trying to

help him as much as possible. He has so much to worry about right now. Thanks

so much!

Robynn

LymeBrain@...

[Guest guest]

>Hello everyone,

>

>I have a close friend who has been diagnosed with MS this past year. He is

25 and recently married. He is scheduled to start the drug therapy Avonex.

Has anybody on this list taken this drug? Do any of you have any opinions

about this med - good or bad? Please feel free to email me privately I am

trying to help him as much as possible. He has so much to worry about right

now. Thanks so much!

>

>Robynn

Hi Robyn, *HUGS*

I'm on the drug study for Avonex, for my secondary progressive MS. It's not

worth beans for relapse remitting, but it does seem to help secondary

progressive, at least in slightly over half the patients - 63% as I recall.

I, however, got lucky... It ain't doing squat for me.

It's not hard to do the injections, if you're not afraid of needles. The

cost is more than a bit steep tho ... A new drug is *almost* out now, also

for SPMS - Immunx's Novantrone. The cost should be slightly less per

month, tho it's taken by an IV at a clinic every 3 months instead of weekly

injections at home.

So, anyway, you need to know more about what form of MS your friend has...

It's kind of like cancer - there are different forms of it, and a treatment

for breast cancer and one for skin cancer are going to be a bit different.

Love and Light,

Jeannette

oh ps - the recent Aspartame thing is, bluntly, a crock... Ditto the ozone

thing. If you want to ask why, email me privately to keep the list

screaming down ... Apparently, most people forgot basic high school biology

and chemistry. I didn't. There are some things that can be done to slow it

down ... but nothing yet can honestly stop is in a sizeable number of

patients. Skip the Swank Diet, skip the high-fat diet, skip all the hocus

pocus and learn about how the disease works, and attack it where it's

weaknesses lie.

JW

Misandristic switch tryke Witch, out and proud in the Emerald City