Health

Health

Clinical Research Study: Teriflunomide

Received a request to post this:

A Clinical Research Study Evaluating An Investigational Medication for Relapsing Forms of Multiple Sclerosis
Medical researchers are enrolling people in a worldwide clinical research study for people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS). This study will assess the safety and effectiveness of an investigational study medication versus placebo (an inactive substance which contains no active medication) in people ages 18-55 years old with RMS.

The investigational medication used in this study is called teriflunomide (ter-i-flün-?-mïde). It is derived from leflunomide (le-flü-n?-mïde), also known as Arava®. Arava® is already approved in many countries for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, another autoimmune disease.

The first step in determining eligibility for this study is to take the pre-screening questionnaire either online or on the phone. You will be asked a series of questions related to your health and be given additional information about study site locations. Visit http://www.tower3.msstudies.com or call 1-866-565-0245 today to learn more about the study and see if you may qualify.

So I did.

Me, Multiple Sclerosis, and WordPress

Sometimes the cognitive function – read lack of function -that comes along with multiple sclerosis really gets to me. I have always been fairly good with the coding, code was poetry, but now I find that it can turn to gibberish.

Then there is the clumsy part where my freeking fingers hit the wrong spot on the keyboard or loose control of the mouse at the very wrong time. This sometimes sends parts of the php file to oblivion or saves something at the wrong time.

Ok, yes, backing up all said files before even thinking about touching them helps but, and here is the cog fog again, more than once I have overwritten the original file on accident with the new file, that in turn of course does not work and stuff stops functioning.
I then find myself staring wonderingly at my WordPress files with a comprehension level of an ant.

WordPress is awesome but sometimes a plugin gone bad can drive me nuts. Especially after deactivating it and ending up with a persistent problem. After checking all the files in WordPress and my theme with no joy I start to suspect that something evil has been written to my database. Checking mysql databases is not my favorite thing in the best of times.

So, for your enjoyment and you had better think hey how cool at least she got something done after all the plugin errors.

Please notice that the header image I added to the theme is now click able and is set for home.


and that these cool boxes work although I have not a clue as to why I wanted them


with niffty colors and all I am ready for Easter

And they wrap like this right now all though I might come up with some more after I get over my plugin debacle. I still need to come up with some styles for blockquotes but I think I will wait a bit and make sure this theme renders well in all browsers and that I am ok with it. I liked the other one a lot but it showed bad behavior in IE plus the comments would never line up right in the side bar. The widget worked with other themes so it was the theme problem and I got tired of messing with.

So now you know one way multiple sclerosis effects me and I in turn bungle WordPress. And, how there is one plugin author out there that I would like to see . …


and that my comments pages are now threaded and you can request an notice that an update to any comment you make have a notice emailed to you.

So, get with the comments already -alright!!!

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Bullies, Forums and Alligators

I started blogging in 2003.  I deleted my original blog and started this one Dec. 3oth, 2005. One of my first consistent readers and commentator’s was drumsnwhistles ( Karoli of odd time signatures and Bang The Drum). I have had the pleasure of knowing her as best as one can via email and blogs.

Karoli blogged a while back  about a case where cyber bulling went way to far and resulted in the death of a 13-year old named Megan hanging herself in her closet.  While Karoli is an honest blogger I have had my share of dishonest ones.

I even stopped blogging here for awhile after of few weeks of constant harassment over a post I made about a young man who was shot to death in my neighborhood.   No big deal until someone knocked on my door -yep my front door of my home!  We are never anonymous, although I admit I never really tried hard to be so.

Any of us, and many do I believe, have some sort of system set up to keep track of hits, where they come from, what was read, and all sort of other stats. Some of us do it so we can track what people found interesting.  All though I am not sure why I care? I guess it is some deep seated ego type deal because this blog is not set up to sale or promote anything.  It is just a place to vent and share.

Ok, hang in there I really do have a point here somewhere.

The first open use  cyber bulletin  board  I remember using was way back when ( hear my bones creaking here)  . . . a Prodigy one that was accessible via a V.22 1200 bps modem. It had a simple menu with four items and you had to wait a day for any reply to be posted.  It posted on a board for recovering alcoholics. And, here is the point, there were “trolls” and “bullies” then and there are “trolls” and “bullies”  now. They just have more available means and mediums to flourish in.

Recently I have joined a few multiple sclerosis forums. I don’t post – I lurk. Why? I do not choose to hang myself out there and be annoyed by the trolls and bullies.  I have learned a lot reading through the posts. Some forums are better moderated than others and I have to apply some common sense in distinguishing the facts from the B.S. .

I swear, I can think someones blog post is directed at me when I have never even posted on their blog LOL! And sometimes the emails can be illuminating. When one blogger emails about another behind their back . … it can go on and on. I do not get it? I don’t use instant messaging anymore either after a fiasco involving a person cutting and pasting my name out of one IM and pasting in someone elses nasty stuff.

Lisa at Brass and Ivory posed this question in post:

This opens the door to the question – what are some dangers and drawbacks to online disease-specific communities and forums? what do you do when bullying, stalking, and harassment get out of control?

I am not in the “in” crowd of the MS cyber community but it seems bullies are a topic being discussed.  Merelyme has a post on subject and a list of questions that provoke thought on the subject.

After stopping blogging here for a bit I can not say that the ramifications of blogging honestly is without drawbacks but after a bit of a reprive and thought I decided to start up again.   As for the forums I am not sure.  It really is silly that I could allow some name, a moniker,  upset me.

Ok, back the beginning.

If my cyber friend Karoli were to out of the blue type some nasty comments about me I would be crushed. Because, it would come out of the blue, I would be unsuspecting,  it would shock me,  hurt me.  When I open myself up and share my thoughts with someone I go in with the expectation that they are doing it for the same reasons with no ulterior motive.  If someone that my only knowledge is from what I have read on their blog or they have posted on mine says something crappy I still get offended but my expectations are lower. Does it sting? Yes.

Here this is my blog, I am the moderator.  Any forum is only as good as it moderators.

I stop my rambling on with an article Online Forum Etiquette: How to deal with a forum bully.

“The objective  is to thoroughly analyze all situations, anticipate all problems prior to their occurrence, have answers for these problems, and move swiftly to solve these problems when called upon. However, when you are up to your ass in alligators, it is difficult to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp.”

Just remember you are never as anonymous as you hope online and words do hurt and there are alligators out there waiting to snap.

Space – Spirit – Stem Cells

stuffed toy NASA bear in space suit

Ground control to Major Tom:
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong. …
This is Major Tom to ground ]control:
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in the most peculiar way . ..
And the stars look very different today
Here am I floating round my tin can, far above the moon . …
Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.

Sometimes I feel like my body is a messed up biological vehicle. Just like poor Major Tom it carries me around without any certainty, with an unpredictability liken to a space capsule off course. Multiple Sclerosis has made me feel like I live in an alien.

I wish I could step through a door and float amongst the stars and meld with atoms and  molecules. A place where the elements of this earth would not limit the  spirit that is within me.  I would  move faster than the speed of light as my soul followed its destiny.

Ground Control to Kmilyun:
All the matter on Earth is star stuff.

Well dang – zap back to earth and this crazy thing we call life.

Of note and hope from Reuters : FDA allows first test of human stem cell therapy

Stem cells have the potential to replace the function of damaged nerve cells – emmm sounds like a good thing. All moral and religious issues aside – it offers hope in the hunt for a cure for Multiple Sclerosis and many, many other diseases and conditions

Off to the land of dreams now where I can float through time and space . …

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