In December 2019, I was diagnosed with (PPMS) Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and by March 2020 just a mere three months I had became bed bound and disabled! Unable to look after myself or my then three year old daughter! For people who know little about the disease Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, it causes brain and nerve function to worsen. Symptoms do not go into remission then r
elapse like other forms out there. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease. It causes the immune system, which usually defends the body against infection and disease, to instead target the protective myelin coating that covers the nerves. Around 15% of people with MS have primary progressive MS (PPMS). All types of MS typically damage the (CNS) central nervous system. However, PPMS causes a distinct type of damage. It tends to cause fewer lesions on the brain and more lesions on the spinal cord, for example, compared with other forms of MS. This happens and caused me to be paralysed and bed bound! As well as a number of issues like numbness, vision problems, muddled thoughts, fatigue, balance issues, speech issues, depression, paralysis, bowel issues to name just a few! The full list is endless and ever growing! At first I was fine and like all humans felt I would have decades before it affected me. The most devastating part was the loss of mobility and being able to be the father I wanted to be to my then 3yr old! From always at the play parks, to throwing her around to now being confined to a bed, reliant on everyone, trapped in a failing body having to have my every move done for me. Choking and dribbling constantly, messing myself as no working bowels, needing to be constantly adjusted to get a form of comfortable and the duvet or cloths hurting like you have Shingles! All in all a horrendous existence that is slowly killing my partner! I had researched everything before I became worse. Knowing where things would be heading. Things have gotten so bad for myself and my family that I now have to have carers come in 3 times a day to help wash me and help my partner clean the house and with my daughter. As a last bid attempt to have a life, we have decided to do the most severe process of (HSCT) Haematopoietic stem cell treatment. The only treatment to halt MS progression! It is various chemotherapies to stop it in its tracks and in many cases can help lessen and even reverse the damage caused from the MS. Using your bodies own stem cells from the bone marrow to reset everything. The treatment takes on average 28 days to complete.
