It's Monday, time to update ya'll.

It is very hard to judge where you are at health wise with Multiple Sclerosis. One way people think that M/S can be moderated is by having an MRI done, and looking at the lesion activity. CLICK ME and read the communication between Denise_F & ally. You will see that sometimes lesions in the brain won’t really mean anything until further evidence is found supporting the initial belief; which could be really wrong or really right. As you can imagine, this gets really frustrating. Especially when the Doc. wants to put you on a medication that has less than desirable side effects.

In order to explain why MRI’s aren’t the most productive way to judge the current condition/status of M/S. I am going to attempt to explain how Lesions in the spinal cord or brain show up, “AS I UNDERSTAND IT.”

1.) Things happen in an order
Although breakthru's in science are happening all the time, bringing us closer to finding what causes M/S, to date the exact factor is unknown. It could have something to do with genetic's, or it could be due to environmental factors. In either way, the good function of the body to protect itself, becomes corrupted. The symptoms of M/S come into view when the destruction of the myelin starts to occur.

2.) Immune system acting out of wack, T cells becoming corrupt

A dysregulation of the immune system results in the body attacking its own nerve tissue. Certain defence cells, called T cells, are activated and trigger these attacks. Normally these T cells are involved in defending the body against things like viruses and bacteria.

3.) T cells attack brain cells

Once the T cells are activated, they can penetrate the brain with its countless nerve cells. In the brain the T cells are stimulated to attack the nerve cells. The attacks cause damage to the myelin layer, the part that acts like insulation for the nerves.

4.)Now the Macrophanges take over

The T cells in the brain are to blame for the damage to the myelin sheath, since they turned on another group of defence cells called macrophanges. The macrophanges eat up the myelin sheaths surrounding the nerves. Now there are holes in the myelin that lead to a slower transmission of impulses along the nerve fibre pathways. The slower electric signal being sent throug the nerves is what generates the typical symptoms common in MS.

Once the macrophanges have had a chance to nibble on the myelin for a bit, you can see below how much of a hit the nerves can take.

As I understand, once all this happens and you have damage to the myelin, you STILL may not even see any new lesions show up in the brain or spinal cord. The reason is this. The lesions start to show up after the myelin has been damaged, then SCARRED OVER. Once the body attempts to create what you can think of as a "scab" over the damaged myelin, that is when it may show up on an MRI. From the first day Multiple Sclerosis shows up in your body, to the very first appearence of a lesion could take weeks, months, years, or a lifetime. I could have damage that occured when I was 15 that won't show up till i'm 30 years old!

In good ole America, the vast majority of the doctors believe that once the myelin in the brain is damaged, it can not be reversed or fixed. The Chinese see it differently, they believe that just like any other system of the body that the Stem Cells have created, they can regrow this myelin, especially when certain growth factors are in play.

~~CURRENT SITUATION~~

For about 4 month's before I left for China I was experiencing tremors in my fingers, arms, and legs. So much so that it would dissrupt daily life. Not to mention worry the crap out of me. I have been back from China for a little over a month. I have NO tremors. Personally, I thank the stem cell therapy. But, it could be due to a number of reasons. I haven't been physically active, and when I am intensly physically active, it always spurs M/S activity. Also, I have stayed on my Avonex, which I have had multiple exacerbations when I first started it. And lastly, we haven't hit the cold months. The cold months are the hardest for my body to cope with it seems. That's it, I think I have covered everything health. lol.

PS I applied for this "land management" company today called LML Estate. Seemed like a decent size company. Not 100% sure what they do exactly, but I would assume they take care of land???