It’s been 6 weeks since I finished my first 5-day round of LEMTRADA infusions to treat MS. Crazy! I sometimes forget that just 6 weeks ago I could barely move, let alone function normally! I’ve come a long way! (You can read about treatment and my experience with MS here.)

Life has been so busy the past few weeks as I’m trying to catch up on the time I was away from work. I barely remember to update social media, let alone that I have a blog to update, so I’m sorry I’ve been a little M.I.A.! 

Let me bring you up to speed!

The two questions I get most often are, “so, how do you feel?” and “did it work?” So, to answer the first, and most commonly asked question, I feel amazing! To be honest, there are days lately that I almost feel normal. I’ve been working out regularly at the gym, and I’ve been training for that half marathon that I intend to run later this year. I was so excited a few weeks ago when I was able to run 15km! Honestly, I never thought in a million years I’d be running so far, so quickly, but I did it! But it get’s better!

Yesterday Clark and I planned to go to the gym in the evening, but what we didn’t realize was that our gym closes at 5pm on Saturday! Apparently we’re the only losers really cool people who like to work out on a Saturday night? Anyway, we went over to our local outdoor stadium to run stairs! It’s been close to nine months since I’ve even attempted to run stairs, as stairs were one of the hardest things for me when it came to my mobility over the last few months. I was almost able to keep up with Clark and it felt so good to know that I had returned to something I thought may be out of reach for me! So exciting!

But, the really exciting news comes after our run today! We’ve labelled Sundays, Sunday Run-Day, and have dedicated Sunday afternoon/evening to completing our long run for the week. As part of our half marathon training we run 5-10km a few days a week, and on the weekends we push ourselves to see how far we can go. Today we ran… are you ready for this? … 22 km!! That’s more than the distance of a half marathon!

Now, I should mention that I’m absolutely exhausted and I can barely move, but if someone told me 6 weeks ago, or even 3 months ago that I’d be running 22km by April, I would have thought they were crazy! My goal was to the defy the odds this year, and I really believe that with supernatural strength from Heaven, I’m going to show the world that my God has me in His hands every day. 

To answer the second question, at this point it’s too early say if the treatment “worked” or not. That will be evident in the next few years as my MRI’s are monitored to ensure there’s no new damage in my brain and spinal cord. At this point I can only go off the absence of new relapses and how I feel; and so far I’m relapse-free and I feel great! That’s a good sign! 

I’ve also received my first round of lab work. For the next five years they will monitor my blood and urine for any side effects from the Lemtrada, as well they are keeping track of where my white blood cell count is. Below is my first month results, and as you can see, my white blood cells are still slightly below the range they should be, and my lymphocytes are also quite low. Apparently this is normal for someone at the stage of recovery I’m at. It will likely take a few more months before my white blood cells and lymphocytes are within normal range and my immune system begins to function normally.

Overall, I am so glad I decided to move forward with Lemtrada. It’s already changing my quality of life and I’m so optimistic that it’s altered the course of my disease! Thanks again for following along with my journey! I’m happy to answer any treatment or recovery questions you may have if you comment below!