Yabbit and I attended a seminar yesterday that was sponsored by Biogen/MSActiveSource.

There was pretty good attendance- maybe 40 people, good crowd for a Saturday a.m. in Bangor, Maine.

I'd say the attendees were spread out across the board, some PPMS, some SPMS, some RRMS, caregivers and a few professional folks.

There was a buffet breakfast. They fed us pretty good! They gave out bags with pens, day planner calendars, CDs, information on Avonex and a bunch of new Tysabri information/items.

The featured speaker just happened to be my neuro. He did a lively presentation on MS, explained the differences, didn't pull any punches when he had to say "No one knows" He talked about the CRABs, Tyabri, efficacy rates, how changing meds may or may not help people, etc.

There was another speaker scheduled. a patient advocate who was a no show.

There were two Biogen reps there, who fielded a few questions that he could not answer.

After his talk, he opened the floor to questions and there were a lot of them. He answered questions about imaging, symptoms, progression, drug switching, Tysabri risks and benefits, etc. He even talked about one of his Tysabri patients who was going for a new MRI because she was twitching, and how he would rather be cautious no matter what the symptom...

(picture me *smacking* Yabbit for looking right at me!)

All in all a very good presentation. If you get an invite to attend one of these, take advantage of it and go!

I got a lot of answers about Tysabri and will post those specifically on the Tysabri thread.

Thanks for the update, RW! I'm glad ya'll had a good time and got to spend the day together.

So....are you gonna send Cindy your pens??

Sounds like a fun filled and yet informative day for you both.

Thanks for the report..

I forgot to add that they gave us a lovely umbrella! It will come in handy here with the rain we have been getting lately!

Yabbit! Git in here and post your notes!

You know they're giving all this stuff away now b/c after Jan 1 they won't be able to do that anymore! Rules are a changing!!!

Thanks for the brief synopsis RW.

Yabbit, where's your input????

Thanks for the update! I'd drive 3 hours for a free pen so the breakfast would just be the icing on the cake, lol.

You answered all my questions. Well, I had one, if you ate.

Darn, no more freebies? That's it. I am done with MS. I quit it! (It works that way right?)

The free stuff for the Doctors is ending, didn't know about the stuff for patients. Got the umbrella and a travel mug in the last two weeks from Biogen. Wed is Serono/Pfizer with dinner.

Thank you so much RW. It's always good to get a patient's perspective on that sort of seminar, rather than just that of the doctors or the drug comapnies.

I used to go to lots of them once. I was a nurse at the time so I went to a whole variety of different ones, but any topic that interested me...... I was there!

They all fed us lunch and occassionally even invited us back for a top notch dinner that night at one of the best restaurants. The evening meals were really only for the doctors, but we nurses always just turned up, and never ever were refused!

cool thanks for sharing...

I was bummed....few weeks ago hubby brought home a clipping from the local newspaper...(we dont get it delivered as it has hardly anything in it) well the clipping said there was a MS seminar thing...with a Author..cant think of his name was main speaker...so it said hey call in to still sign up for saturday..

it didnt have a date on it..so wasnt sure what day..so called right away...well it was the saturday...two days before hubby had seen that and got it for me...so totally missed it...was in Marquette Mi...just hour away.

hubby and I were bummed....but hey darn would have loved a free pen lol..hugsss,sarah