Dennis spent this past weekend walking on the parallel bars to get his body use to walking again, but on Monday Dennis’s physical therapist had him walking on a walker with minimum assistance. He no longer has to use a leg brace or the sliding brace for the bottom of his foot. He still needs to work on his hip placement and the hip flexor muscle needs more strength, but today he walked 30 feet twice on his walker with no assistance. The doctors at Brook’s met today on Dennis’s progress and they are very impressed with his improvement since the plasma exchange therapy. They set an estimated release date for Thursday, August 18th. Dennis and I are thrilled. We are ready to be out of the hospital environment and ready to get back to a little bit of normalcy.
We also went back to Mayo today for a follow up appointment. The appointment went really well and Dr. Shuster said that there was no enhancement with the lesion on his spine. We also learn that there are multiple lesions, but there is only one that has been causing Dennis’s nerve damage. The size of Dennis’ spinal cord is good and there was no shrinkage. He will go back next month for a spinal tap and some blood work. They are looking to see if there are any inflammatory cells and bad antibodies growing in his blood and spinal fluid. Good antibodies are proteins made by the body as a response to injury or an invader, such as a virus. They protect us by clearing the virus from body. If the NMO test comes back negative that is good news and only a 20% chance of reoccurrence. The doctor said in neurologist language a 20% chance is slim to none. But if the test comes back positive then there is a bigger chance Dennis could get TM again. In order to reduce the chances of getting TM again, Dennis will have to be on medicine long-term. The long term effects of having the bad antibodies in his blood is that there could be damage done to obviously the spine, eyes and sometimes the brain.
The doctor did talk to us about some really cool studies that a doctor by the name of Moses Rodriquez is working on at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, MN. He recently discovered a special antibody, rHIgM22 that is a naturally-occurring antibody in mice, which help repair myelin. When this antibody attaches to a oligodentrocyte, a cell that is responsible for producing myelin, it signals the cell and tells it to remyelinate. When mice were given one single dose of IgM22, 70 percent of their lesions were completely repaired and yes humans have the antibody too. Since, the doctor has been able to isolate this antibody, the antibody 22 is moving forward with more clinical trials, but has not been approved to be tested on humans. It has been successful in mice and baboons. Even though this may not help Dennis now it could help if his NMO test comes back positive. I also wanted to mention another study about electronic stimulation used in paralyzed individuals. Electronic stimulation has been powerful in Dennis’s recovery, however, this study is used for individuals who are completely paralyzed, but thought it was really cool to share. Check out this site when you have a chance, Dr. Shuster showed us this video today during Dennis’s follow up appointment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0VJkVx92nU).
Thank you again for all your prayers!
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