Good News

I had a visit with my Neuro(s) last week and got some good news. The drug trial will be officially ending before the end of the year but they are join ahead with an 'extension study'. It isn't a Phase 4 trial (which are long-term tracking trials to look for side-effects that don't show up under shortened use of the drug), but it is a 48 week run of continued care and everyone gets the 14mg (higher) dose of the drug the entire time. It is to compare the results of the placebo group, which will then be known, to see if they then start improving. Pretty cool and while the fine print says "if you qualify", I was told that pretty much everyone who wants to participate can.

The other cool thing is that I have been exercising on a new plan and it is working. I am trying to put on muscle which means gaining weight. I need to change my body fat % and the only way to do that now is to make more muscle. My arms and legs and chest have all shown big improvements from 1/2-3/4" in my arms to about 1.5" in my legs. My chest is about 1" bigger and the differences in the sizes of my left and right sides are shrinking. I have to eat a ton, and that is the real chore at this point. The workouts are not what you may expect and I may post more about that another time, but they are not really fatiguing as much as you may think. I know that I recover faster from these than other longer workouts I have done. I miss the balance work and coordination stuff that Marsha had me do, and I will switch back to that once I finish this bulking cycle. My thought is I will have to do a few bulk / fat loss cycles over the next year or two to get my body where I want it. Overall I think it is helping my walking also because that doesn't seem to be as difficult an issue this summer, although I will admit with the extreme heat, I am actually outside less than last year, so it could also just be the precision of heat avoidance. :)