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#Post#: 3274--------------------------------------------------
Richard M. Cohen, CHASING HOPE: A PATIENT'S DEEP DIVE INTO STEM
CELLS...
By: agate Date: May 1, 2021, 12:45 am
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Richard M. Cohen, CHASING HOPE: A PATIENT'S DEEP DIVE INTO STEM
CELLS, FAITH AND THE FUTURE (2018)
This book by an author who has had MS for decades is a report
on his venture into the promising new world of stem cell
treatments for MS--a venture for which he has to have been more
courageous than many of us would be, for the treatment's
benefits are still debatable.
Along the way, he is concerned about hope. Can one have hope
without faith? He interviews assorted people, such as Rabbi
Kushner (author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People) and TV
anchor Tom Brokaw, struggling with multiple myeloma.
His enthusiasm for stem cells began when he and his family
attended a conference on stem cells at the Vatican. Soon he was
in the hands of Dr. Saud Sadiq of the Tisch MS Research Center
in New York, and he has clearly become a disciple of Dr. Sadiq,
whose name is well known in MS research.
The treatment he received, which he describes in some detail,
was part of a Phase I clinical trial involving some 20 patients.
He does not say so in so many words but the results seem to
have been disappointing, for he acknowledges that the
improvement he noticed was only modest and may have been
temporary.
There was a 2-year follow-up of that clinical trial that makes
it sound as if stem cell treatment may not deliver very
encouraging results:
HTML https://www.tischms.org/phase-i-published-results-2-year-follow
HTML https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6332639/107414077012667333#
The author has done a great service for everyone with MS by his
willingness to undergo this experimental procedure and by his
clear presentation of the account of that experience.
#Post#: 3275--------------------------------------------------
Richard M. Cohen, BLINDSIDED: LIFTING A LIFE ABOVE ILLNESS--A RE
LUCTANT MEMOIR (2004)
By: agate Date: May 2, 2021, 1:36 am
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[font=arial] I wrote these comments back in 2008 but apparently
I didn't include them on the earlier version of this
board.[/font]
[font=arial]BLINDSIDED: LIFTING A LIFE ABOVE ILLNESS: A
RELUCTANT MEMOIR (2004)[/font]
[font=arial][/font]
[font=arial][/font]The author, who happens to be married to
Meredith Vieira, the TV news broadcaster and talk-show host, was
also in the TV news business until multiple sclerosis and other
disorders entered his life. He tells his story, with
considerable discussion about the impact of his illness on his
wife and three children. After the MS diagnosis, he was found to
have colon cancer, which returned later. The surgeries and their
complications, and the pain of the colon cancer, made their
family life difficult, but Richard Cohen takes a wryly humorous
view of himself and freely owns up to his mistakes. His father
is a doctor who also has MS, and his grandmother had MS as well
(although she apparently never realized it).
This is a well-told and honest account of coming to terms with
chronic illness.
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