Contents
Aapo Halko,
my MS.
Name: Aapo Halko
Email Address: aapo.halko@mscrossroads.org
Web Page: http://mscrossroads.org
Occupation: Mathematician
Birthday: 10/29/63
Diagnosed?: y
Diagnosis Date: 08/20/79
Grew Up: Helsinki
Type of MS: secondary progressive
First Symptoms: Numbness in hands and in legs. These symptoms disappeared in three months.
Possible Causes: Not causal, but 1990 was stressful time because of my work and birth of my first daughter.
Current Symptoms: From 1990 my legs and hands have gotten spastic. Fatigue. According to my neuro I have only one lesion which is in the spinal chord. From 1996 my voice and breathing are weak. Update 7/98: My symptoms are essentially the same. The progression is slower. (Mitoxantrone therapy started 11/97). 2/99 MRI revealed typical lesions in the brain but my symptoms come from the spinal chord which was not 'mried'. 11/2003 i started rebif
How Life is Affected: I use electric wheel chair to move around. I can take a few steps while holding. I need a personal assistant constantly. I still work part time. My walking distances
- 1990 10km,
- 1991 3km,
- 1992 1km,
- 1993 500m, cane,
- 1994 50m, electric wheel chair,
- 1995 20m,
- 1996 few steps, personal assistant,
- 1997 transfer,
- 1998 transfer with very little assistance,
- 2001 transfer with little assistance,
- 2004 transfer with a little assistance
How Do You Deal: I don't have emotional problems. I don't have bladder problems, but bowel is slow. I eat high fiber and take lactulose every day. I get physio therapy twice in a week and three-week rehabilition twice in a year.
Possible Cures: In 1994-2001 I have got 40 3-day i.v. methylprednisolon pulses. 7/95-3/96 I used beta-interferon, 6 MIU once a week. During that time I had less fatigue but my ms progressed. I tried gluten free diet in 1993, but it did not help. In 93 I got tetanus-diphteria vaccination. A week after that my walking distance dropped from 500m to 200m. I have been on azathioprine, but have not noticed a difference. Next we will try mitoxantrone treatment. 7/98. After 4 mitoxantrone treatments I am almost stable. 8/2000 After 9 mitoxantrone treatments, I have been active, working part time, my symptoms are only a little worse. 3/2001 Every flu makes me little worse. 10th treatment, two more to go. 10/2003 i got the last mitoxantrone infusion, two years after the previous. i have had several ivmps.
Mission
One of the goals of this site is to bring the latest knowledge of multiple sclerosis - for which there is no simple answer.Around 1992 I started to follow the newsgroup alt.support.mult-sclerosis which was and is a group of people asking, answering, supporting, searching for the information.
When www came in 1993-94 I soon realized its power. First I collected www-links for myself, but then I put the link list which I called I wanted to use the Internet to shorten the gap between researchers, doctors and patients.