Hi Mariel,

HiCY is short for high dose cytoxan. It's was first used as conditioning for bone marrow transplants to wipe out the immune system. John, my husband, did the High Dose Cytoxan clinical trial for his Severe Aplastic Anemia. Since then, it's been used in other auto-immune diseases like scleroderma and Lupus. For the later, it was used after other therapies failed. They then started a trial at Hopkins using it for one of the sub-types of MS. I think they call the treatment protocol Revimmune for MS.

So it treats one form of MS and for two to four week period, you're vulnerable to infection and are on multiple antibiotics, anti-fungals and anti-virals until your white blood cells kick in again. The cytoxan is four doses, four days in a row and they administer another drug with it to protect the bladder.

With your issues regarding the porphyria, it could be more challenging for you because of all the drugs that are used after the chemo.

Hope this helps....M