There is good news and bad news.

The good news (yes, I was surprised there is such a thing as "good news" too!) is that if you have MS, you have a significantly lower chance of getting cancer.  Researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 20 thousand people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The study found that for people with multiple sclerosis the risk of cancer was 10% lower than in the control group.  There is some debate as to whether this is due to people changing their lifestyle after diagnosis, but latest thinking is that it is something to do with the condition itself.  (I've lost the link about all this, will post if I track it down later.)

Some bad news is that although there is a fairly effective treatment for the "relapsing-remitting" form of MS (Don has the untreatable "progressive" form), the treatment carries some risk of heart damage and quite a high risk of leukemia.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090430101441.htm

More good news - and this is quite thrilling - is that there has been improvement for MS patients who have been injected with stem cells of their own fat tissue.  Not just "improvement", but an actual REVERSAL of the disease, to the extent that they are seeing regeneration of the myelin sheath that gets destroyed in MS. http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/news/april-2009/fat-tissue-multiple-sclerosis-30465

So we are trying to get Don into an exercise programme, because his muscles are wasting away through lack of use, and if by some miracle there is a chance for him in the future, he needs to be strong enough to actually benefit.

Why did I call this blog "trivia"?  Nothing trivial about it.  Leukemia is devastating, the possibility of a cure is life-changing.