My friend Monica also has MS. She does not medicate. Which is not to say she does not treat her MS. Monica chooses her activities carefully. She exercises every day. She chooses her food carefully, following a Wahls-like diet, or what some of us call an auto-immune protocol. (AIP) Monica is also an exceptionally kind and gentle—non-inflammatory—person. (Am I implying MS is an expression of a personality defect? I hope not. I’m just observing that it’s hard to create a spark without any friction. Every life has friction. Monica seems to have a talent for not creating any friction, herself.) Monica never tries to talk me into living medication-free. I never try to talk her into taking medication. (I might have made a recommendation to take Singular, an allergy drug that has been shown in the lab to transform the brains of old rats into brains that function like young rats. But that’s for another post.)

When Monica texted to ask what our neurologist had to say about my rash, I wrote, “Z says he will support my decision even if I stop taking FDA approved drugs. But it’s such a tough call. If I’m wrong, and I get an exacerbation, I’ll blame myself. If overheating on this drug gives me an exacerbation, I will also blame myself.” I was perhaps exaggerating  (or as we as say in my family of origin, ‘over-exaggerating’) when I texted about the perils of overheating. Overheating merely creates pseudo-exacerbations, or transient worsening that last until the MS host cools off. Pseudo-exacerbations sure feel like the real thing, but they don’t bring on permanent damage (as far as we know.)  You see how Monica and I are opposites? Even after years of daily work to mellow out, I still have a tremendous talent for creating friction out of thin air.

Monica texted, “Yes, it’s a tough decision. Think we should decide not to blame ourselves either way. I will always support you, wwld* :)”

*wwld is of course short-hand for what would Lisa do? Feel free to sprinkle this liberally all over the internet, like lesions on an MS MRI.

Note that when I texted that I’d decided to drop the Tecfidera, Monica didn’t text back, “told ‘ya so,” or “welcome to revolution against rapacious Big Pharma” or anything. The Lisa she knows is a much better person than Ms. Lab Rat.

Her sweet response was not at all surprising. I didn’t expect to get any guff from Monica. The guff, when I got it, came from an entirely unexpected quarter.