Testing for the Test

Whew! Today was a busy busy day! I took the day off of work because I had five different tests today for the FTY720 trials.
At 7:30am I had a Pulmonary Function Test. This is where they test my lung capacity. I had to breathe into a tube a number of times. One of the tests was just me breathing regularly, then taking a deep breath in and blowing it all out. Another test was breathing in against something blocking the airway. The next was breathing out against something blocking the airway.
Each of the tests I had to do three times. Then I had to take an asthma medication and wait a little bit. Then I had to repeat and do all the tests again... three times. You'll see that that's a pretty regular thing: 3 times repeate of tests.
The next test was getting my labs done right afterwards (about 9:00am). They had to draw three viles worth of blood for all sorts of tests I'm not aware of. I also had to do a urine test for pregnancy assurance.
The test after that was MS Functional Composite Test, at 10:00am. This test was actually another series of tests. They had me walk as fast, and as safely, as I could down a straight path... x3. The next test we did was seeing how fast I could put pegs into a board, one by one. This one we did six times because we did it with each hand three times. The next test was reading letters off the wall. The bottommost line I could read. The letters were all the same sizes, they just faded as they went down the wall. I think I did pretty good at that. Again, x3. They had to take my blood pressure (which sucked because it was on the arm that the blood was taken from)... four times, because one of the times didn't take. Oh, and the hardest test we did was this numbers test. They played a CD that would give numbers and I'd have to add them up, then it'd give me another number, and I'd have to add it to the last number (not the answer to the last set). It's a lot tougher than it sounds because it's start spilling out numbers quickly. Again, x3.
At 1:15pm I had an EDSS Test. This is your basic MS test that the neurologist does. It was done by a different doctor from my normal neurologist. This was where he made me walk a straight line, one foot in front of the other. Then he checks my reflects. Then the doc did the poke test, to see if I could tell the difference between soft and sharp. He also did the "ping" test. That's what I call it, at least. It's where he takes a tuning fork, srikes it ("ping!"), and then places it against parts of my body to see if I can feel the vibrations. I was fine, except my left foot, it took quite a strong "ping" for me to feel it.
Then I had to do it all over again with Dr. Webb. Which wasn't bad, it just meant that I had to repeate it only twice. Not bad.
It was a long day of testing. But it was over by two pm, which was nice.

FTY720 Visit 1

Okay, so I'm getting ready to start the drug tests for an oral MS drug. On Sept. 9th I met with Nancy the Neurologist and went over the paperwork. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. It turns out Fingolimod (FTY720) has a few side effects that made me a bit worried.
The biggest thing about Fingolimod is that it moves the white blood cells, which causes the immune system to be weakened. It's bad enough that MS causes the innune system to be weakened, now I'll be taking something that causes it to be even worse. Grr. Oh well, I'll just have to up the vitamin dosages and such... and take extra shots, for flu and such.
The other thing that really really worries me is the birth defects as a possibility. That really scares me and makes me worry about the future. Is it worth it, I think? I keep thinking that maybe I should wait and go ahead with hmy life. But I still go on with heading towards the trials, thinking of I'm not supposed to do it, one of the tests will turn out negative, and I'll have to drop out. It's hard to not think about. There's only been two recorded cases of birth defects, and they might have not properly gone off the medication before getting pregnant. But it still worries me.