I used to have a Bouvier des Flandres, named TinyMonsters. Those are big dogs too, not quite as large as a Great Dane tho, but still pretty huge.

I keep waffling back and forth on wanting another dog. I want one, but I think I have an allergy (my allergies all improved after Tiny died, and I had an allergic reaction when I tried to adopt a Yorkie 5 days after Tiny left us)

Then there's the whole fatigue part of MS that's also holding me back on a new dog.

My aunt's Pug just died last month, and she's considering getting a new one, and I'm kind of thinking of getting one from the same litter if we can find some.

I miss my dog, and I miss my aunt's dog. (both our dogs were best friends in the world, they even died on the same date, 2yrs apart)

Wow, Tiny is a very very big dog. Very attractive too. I am trying to cultivate an interest in dogs because I can't have cats anymore. I had to give away my Abyssinian cat after 7 years. I developed horrible cat allergies that came out of no where. I tried everything--allergy shots, acupuncture, chiropractic, you name it. Nothing worked. It just about killed me. Fortunately, an old boyfriend that had lived with me and the cat took him so he went to a familiar person. I still get reports and photos. He is now 15 and is a diabetic. The old BF has to give him insulin shots everyday! So the cat and I do the daily shots.

I started to develop all sorts of allergies around the time that I think my MS started. I've always kind of wondered if MS is related to allergies somehow. Allergies are abnormal immune responses, and MS is the mother of all abnormal immune responses.

Does anyone know the dif between T2 and T1. My report talks about T2 signal intensity and the standard multiple, numerous... have to love the fact I have a 1cm, and 9mm one and smallers. I have heard no one say they had a 1cm one.

I see Beauty thinks T2 are new ones and unhealed. Does that mean I may not have had this as long as I think? I have no mention of a T1.

Quite honestly, they do not know for sure the significance of T2 lesions to the disease process yet (believe it or not), but what they do know is that people with this certain type of lesion in their brain or spinal cord will likely be dx with MS at some point. That is the main significance of a MRI; to DIAGNOSE the disease.

The more you research and think you understand about this disease, the more you realize "they" don't know a lot either yet. They are not even absolutely sure that repressing the inflammation that goes on in the lesions (causing them to appear less hyperintense in a MRI) is necessarily a good thing . . . but at this point they are approaching them on the premise that the inflammation is bad.

That is the reason that they treat us with steroids and the CRABs, to hopefully reduce the "flare-ups" of T2 lesions . . . in an effort to try to affect the disease process in the longer run. However, other researchers are of the opinion that we should let our bodies "run the course" of inflammation rather then try to suppress it with meds . . .

The way I understand it, the T2 lesions are the more transient type, that inflame and then most often disappear at will. The drugs we use tend to manage the flare-ups of these lesions, but the fact that they are flared does not mean anything absolute either. That's why you will hear people say that they are very disabled with few lesions, and others have no obvious problems with 100+.

Besides, a person could take a MRI every week and get a different outcome of the number of visible lesions.

T1 lesions are the destructive ones, that imply more "axonal loss and matrix destruction." Having them correlates more closely with clinical disability then the number of T2 lesions (which tend to be more transient). T1 lesions are the more permanent (black holes), and are found more commonly in those with SPMS (and possibly PPMS). These lesions generally indicate a longer duration of the disease process, and people with RRMS will generally have a lower ratio of T1/T2 lesions then those with SPMS.

Cherie

Thanks for the info Cherie. I'm not sure if the above information makes me feel any better as I was told I have a significant amount of T1 lesions. It really kind of scares me. I don't have any disability though. Why? I just one mild case of O.N. (clinically isolated syndrome) and occasionally dizziness -- but who knows, that could have been from the psuedo-panic attacks I was having in the months after I was diagnosed because I was so freaked out. It has been almost a year since the O.N. began and nothing new has cropped up.

Beauty, great idea on faxing the questions ahead of time!

I think what makes this disease so infuriating is that it is a slippery little critter. There are never really any definitive answers. Knowledge and information always make me feel better but most of the time I can't find the answers to my questions in all of the MS research I read. So that leaves me feeling not only frustrated but scared to death. I am practicing taking Vic's advice about recognizing that MS just IS. Just trying to learn how to be zen. I'm about to sign up for a yoga class.

Natalie, do you have access to your MRI report, as deciphered by the technician? I would get a copy, if you don't already have one.

I mixed up a lot of things that were said to me in those early days, so with any luck, you may find they said T2 lesions instead.

On the other hand, if it is T1 lesions . . . like I said, nothing really seems to make sense with this disease. I had only 3 small lesions in my brain, even after 12 yrs with this disease, yet they told me I had a significant chance of being bedridden from the get-go with the first and second attack because the attack was from severe spinal ones (lesions); transverse myelitis. I am still walking, 17 yrs later.

There are no absolutes. Even if there are trends, it doesn't mean that is what is going to happen to any one of us.

Cherie