Christmas tandems

Three Kings, two reindeer and 

a camel.

Not forgetting the pantomime favourites....

Dick Whittington and his Cat. This one's better without the cycling gear.

This was our Tandem Club Taunton group Christmas lunch on Sunday 10th December. There should have been about twenty tandems but the weather was so dreadful just three did a very short ride before all enjoyed a lovely lunch together.  Rather a late post, it's been crazily busy. I'm not complaining, we're off on the holiday of a lifetime shortly meeting Louise in Costa Rica. This will be the first-time we've ever been away for two weeks or done winter sun. Then there have been cards to write, presents to wrap, family and friends to visit....

It's been a pretty good year all in all, still no MS treatment but next neurologist appointment lined up for January.

Happy Christmas to all 🎄😊

This could have been me #tecfidera

Here's a snapshot from a recently published clinical commentary about dimethylfumarate (dmf or brandname Tecfidera) and prolonged lymphopaenia (low total lymphocyte count) that I pinched from a neurologist's Twitter feed this morning. Fact: neurologists tweet, friends and family do Facebook; meanwhile clubs, charities and anyone wanting to sell you something do both!

Anyway, what the report points out is that dmf causes marked lymphopaenia that persists after drug discontinued. Like me, this patient had switched to dmf after beta interferon and, also like me, only took dmf for four months. Clearly, dmf lymphopaenia has no bearing on how effective the drug is as this patient had a severe relapse despite her lymphopaenia. I know from my own experience that two years post dmf short course total lymphocytes remain low and from the flow cytometry  (measuring lymphocyte subsets) the cell group particularly low are the CD8 T cells. Dmf must deplete memory B cells to a moderate extent whist being taken for it to be moderately effective. It would seem to me that at the expense of long term lymphopaenia in particular low CD8 count this drug is not worth the risk.

Sorry folks, next post will have some photos..... here's a clue #tandem #christmas #fancydress