Becoming a self-advocate may be the best way of getting the treatment any MS patient may want.
Stem cell transplants are known as aHSCT or just HSCT, and interest in them as a therapy for MS has never been higher. First there were stories from the annual meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers at the beginning of June. Then, a week later, The Lancet published the results of the first clinical trial to prove long-term benefits of what has been a controversial treatment.
This transplant therapy is not claimed to be a cure but, having read the report and acknowledging it has dangers (as do Disease Modifying drugs), I’d say it is the nearest thing we have to a cure at the moment. But I have to emphasise I am not a doctor – my opinion is that of a career journalist who happens to live with MS.
Many neurologists seem reluctant to embrace the new therapy, possibly because it is not led by their speciality in the field of medicine. Instead it is in the hands of haematologists and oncologists because, after all, it started as a cancer treatment and does include high doses of chemotherapy.
For that or for other reasons anyone with MS may have difficulty in getting their neurologist to agree to put them forward for this process even if the talk today is all about ‘shared’ decisions.
No, there is absolutely no way that I am going to knock shared decisions – after all, that means the doctor and patient have agreed on the best way forward. If that is the case, that is great – but what if agreement is not reached and they have shared disagreement instead?
Well, people with MS have to be their own self-advocate. They need to remember that this unwanted disease is in their bodies; they have the ultimate right to determine how it should be treated.
Not everyone with MS will be suitable candidates for HSCT but, if they are, then no neurologist on Earth can be allowed to stand in their way.
With this in mind, I was interested to see the following on one of the social media:
We should all present our neurologists with a letter, stating that while they withhold HSCT from us, we consider them personally responsible for any further disease progression. Here is a first draft, for comments please? Imagine if 100,000 of these were presented!
LETTER TO NEUROLOGIST,
cc ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH NEUROLIGISTS
Dear Dr Blah-Blah,
As you know my next appointment with you is scheduled for xx/xx/16.
I am writing to advise you in advance, that I would like you to assist me in pursuing a Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant. I attach details of recent submission by Professor Paolo Muraro, together with commentary by Professor Gavin Giovannoni, relating to HSCT for MS being the best way to achieve no evidence of disease activity (NEDA). I am no longer prepared to take inferior disease modifying medications.
My EDSS is currently measured at x.x and I feel it is only fair to advise you, that I will be holding the neurolgogy profession including yourself, fully accountable for any further disability that accrues from this point forward. To aid with analysing any increased disability, I have today been independently filmed walking 20m, which will then be compared to future timed 20m walks.
Should you wish to bring my next appointment forward, I believe we would all consider that to be a step in the right direction.
Yours sincerely,
MS Patient
The content of that letter has been reproduced word for word and, while it may not be how I would phrase it, it makes its point – and is a great example of the self-advocate that is so needed today.
Related articles:
Stem cell clinical trial is real, not ‘false hope’ June 12
Long-term clinical trial Proves stem cell therapy that destroys immune system Does Stop MS June 10
50shadesofsun 