Originally Posted by lady_express_44

Glad to see you up and about postinig, RW.

I was reading the information submitted for the upcoming AAN meeting scheduled for April/09, and noticed a topic called:

"Natalizumab Therapy, Surgery and Post-Operative Infectious Complications"
[P02.134], Tuesday, April 28, 2009 11:30 AM
Mark Gudesblatt, Myassar Zarif, Barbara Bumstead, Joshua Loewenstein, Anne Dunne, Lori Fafard, Laura Graffitti, Carol Seidel, Lourdes Cruz, Chris Burke, Serina Fahie, Joan Bohuslaw, Patchogue, NY

The conclusion of the study, which included 20 people who had one (or more!) surgeries over the 2 yrs, was:

"No MS patient receiving Natalizumab who underwent surgical treatment had any postoperative infectious complications. No patient required or experienced interruption in treatment. Surgery can be safely performed in MS patients receiving Natalizumab".

Hopefully that means you can back on track fairly quickly.

Cherie

Originally Posted by Natalie8

RW, glad to see you are back. My problem pales in comparison to yours but I have a question about Tysabri and infections. By the way, I think I read in the literature on Ty. that a few people have had issues with their appendix! Hope you get to feeling better soon.

Has anyone here had a tough time getting rid of a bacterial infection while on Tysabri? I started out with a cold and cough. The cough and fever never went away but the cold did. I started an antibiotic while still having the cold. I thought I was feeling better but wasn't sure. I stopped the antibiotic and within 2 days I felt horribly sick--fever came back much worse, chest pain, coughing even worse. I was sleeping for hours upon hours. The doc. said my chest was clear though. He asked me if I wanted to wait and see (in case it was viral) or try an antibiotic again. I went on the Z-pak antibiotic. Within 24 hours my fever was down to normal and my coughing was much better. Anyhow, I am coming up on the 5th day (last day) of the Z-pak antibiotic. I feel WAY better but not totally well--still an occasional cough, occasional itty bitty fever that comes and goes but nothing high like before and a bit of a sore throat. I fear if I stop the antibiotics this infection will coming roaring back. I'm so tired of being sick -- going on 5 weeks.

Is the Ty. making it difficult for me to kick this infection? Has anyone had to do multiple rounds of antibiotics just to get over something while on Ty. or any immunosuppressant drug for that matter? Perhaps I am just panicking because I have been sick for awhile and I'm afraid this bug will never go away.