My MS Specialist (one of the top in the country) suggested minocycline during my last two annuals. The first time I reminded her that I am apparently allergic to the Tetracycline family of drugs, and the second time I decided to give it a try.

The allergic reaction I had previously was quite rare, and it caused my large joints to sieze up. That wasn't a "big" threat, even if it happened, and would have just meant I obviously had to stop if it happened again. What I had found out though, after researching minocycline for MS, was that a number of people (with MS) have responded that way to the drug at first. Apparently it's got something to do with the way it tries to clear out the toxins (that's not exactly it, but something like that).

I started in Feb, about the time my daughter was going through so much. It was hard to tell if it was helping or hurting me, because my body was extremely stressed at the time. I didn't have the joint pain though.

I went off when it didn't seem to be making things better anyway, which was after about a month.

Since then I have been plagued with boils/cysts on various parts of my body. Every two weeks another one pops up. Of course that is what this is normally rx'd for, so I went back on when the first two cysts popped up. It caused them to die down, but I still have the lumps under the skin. This time when I went off, another one popped up, and I'm letting it run it's course because at least it will go away for good when it drains.

So, I don't know what I thnk about this drug for MS at this point. It seemed to make sense, given that I tend to get lots of infections which stir up my MS . . . but it doesn't seem to be helping that too much either. I've never had back-to-back cysts like this (usually once a year), so I think my body has become "dependant" on it in some way ....

I'll probably try it again though, once this cyst goes away . . .

Cherie