About This Blog

As time permits, in-depth musings on myriad subjects will be posted. Abbreviated adages will be announced via Twitter.

Friday, August 04, 2017

Digging In

She's laughing now, which is good. Four or five hours ago was an entirely different story.

When last writing here, plans for what we would do once Nicholle received her MRI were discussed, with optimism on our side. Optimism, however, skipped town and left us in relative shock following a return call from the neurologist's office today.

While Nicholle has no new lesion activity, she does have significant nerve atrophy beneath the existing lesion. How long this atrophy has been occurring is unknown but also irrelevant; what matters now is getting her fast-tracked for receiving medication that will (hopefully) slow the atrophy. It is unknown if there is any way to reverse it.

Since getting the kids to bed and the kitchen cleaned, I've been reading research studies on nerve atrophy of the spinal column with relation to multiple sclerosis and came across this study from Oxford, published in early 1996---one year before Nicholle would graduate high school as a stud track and cross country runner.

And now just look what this [expletive] disease has made of her.

But I digress.

The article (especially in the Discussion section) details the relationship between atrophy and disability, which would largely explain how Nicholle's mobility has so greatly deteriorated over the past twelve months. Unfortunately, it appears as though many doctors and/or researchers didn't really know to look beneath existing lesions until relatively recently, as this article from Everyday Health discusses. But it makes sense, in the same fashion of the "call before you dig" signs do.



We won't find out more about how big of a fight we're in for insurance approval, how much it might cost (with or without insurance), when the treatment can begin, or even what it might be able to do for her---and especially her mobility---until Monday at earliest. Still, we have a bit more information than we did several hours ago. And, while I'm not exactly feeling the giggle fits as I write this, it's comforting to know that Nicholle can at least find reason to laugh.