Met up with SCT pioneer Craig Garrison

[ActiveMSers]

Craig Garrison was in the Phase I version of HALT-MS back in 2001, which looked at SCT for secondary progressive MS. He even had my main docs: Dr. Hutton and Dr. Popat. He documented his story here, although it has not been updated since 2003 (sadly the owner of the site has passed):
http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/craigsstory.html

We had lunch Monday in Houston and he is doing quite well. He golfs every Sunday, drinks beer, and is still seeing little improvements. He’d like to ditch his cane, but he’s not there yet. A former chemist, he's a smart guy and his MS has been stable for the past decade. He's had a few bumps (skin cancer) and his treatment was rougher (radiation), but wow, he's well. I had to treat him to lunch as a thank you!

[Looking88]

All I can say is "Wow!". Craig was the first person I ever read about who's MS was HALTed. A real pioneer. I am sure it was an honor and pleasure meeting Craig.

Regards,
Looking88

[ActiveMSers]

Just got this e-mail from Craig. The stroke: bad. The MS: well, read on. He's now 12 years out.

First the bad news, I had a mini-stroke. Technically, a transient ischemic attack, aka a TIA. Now the good news, I’m already nearly completely recovered. There’s even better news... Wednesday, I saw my neurologist. He wanted to rule out a return of active MS, so he ordered an MRI of my cervical spine, an area he had previously described as looking like a battlefield. (The stroke protocol MRI showed no active lesions in my brain.) I’ve just returned from my follow up appointment concerning the MRI of the neck. Not only were there no active lesions, my spinal cord, in my neurologist’s words, “no longer looks like Swiss cheese.” The bone marrow transplant and physical therapy are really paying off.