by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2007/10/30 10:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2007/10/30/5770960.aspx
Jim asked me via the Contact link:
Hello Michael.....I am interested in your research on Novantrone. I also am currently using it. I have not anything good or bad to report. Could you possibly share the experiences that others have told you about it with me? It is after all a poison with a black box warning. When i question my Doc about it, he plays down the side effects and has told me that out of thousands of people using it there are only a couple of instances of bad side effects. After reading your blog, I see that two people have already spoke out against it due to cardiac issues. My heart is doing alright but I also worry about lukemia....
There is no way to sugarcoat it -- Novantrone is a serious drug.
Since I first talked about this Napalm of the MS world and on through until my decision to stop the treatment for now, I have received a lot of mail and some comments from people who find themselves doing pretty badly on it. From the heart problems to the AML (secondary Acute Myelogenous Leukemia) and everything else that it can do, there is no way to avoid feeling a certain sense of karma if you do poorly based on the whole "I voluntarily took poison; should I be surprised that it poisoned me?" aspect of the drug.
But horror stories won't help anyone make a decision. At least not a responsible one....
But with that said, I would strongly recommend if anyone is taking Novantrone and it is either showing no obvious benefits or if it was helpful originally but no further benefit is being hit, then considering the idea of what I ended up doing by putting off the intentional self-destructive behavior of the drug may be worth talking about with your neurologist.
Even if the risk is that later on it may not be okay to take.
Because it's not the kind of drug you take just because you can....
For me, Novantrone was useful. And if my short term symptoms hit the breaking point that would make it worth considering resuming it, then it is worth considering. But for me, some drugs are too serious to be taking unless you know that the Novantrone juice is worth the squeeze....
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